The eurozone (21 countries using the euro) saw its July consumer price inflation edge up slightly from the previous month.
According to Eurostat, the European Union (EU) statistics agency, on the 31st (local time), eurozone consumer prices in July were provisionally tallied as up 2.9% from a year earlier. That was 0.1 percentage point higher than June's 2.8% and matched market expectations.
Energy prices rose 10.0% from a year earlier, driving overall inflation. Global oil prices climbed as conflict between the United States and Iran flared again. Service prices were up 3.3%. Food, alcohol and tobacco rose 1.2%, and non-energy industrial goods increased 0.9%.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as energy and food, alcohol and tobacco, also rose to 2.5% in July from 2.4% in June. With both headline and core inflation climbing, there is growing weight on the possibility that the European Central Bank (ECB) will raise its benchmark rate again at the September monetary policy meeting.
The ECB, responding to energy-driven inflationary pressure stemming from the Middle East war, raised its three policy rates by 0.25 percentage point each in June. It held rates at the meeting on the 23rd of this month, but said it would decide rates meeting by meeting while watching whether the energy price shock spreads across prices more broadly.
The ECB's next monetary policy meeting will be held on Sept. 10. Before then, the ECB is expected to assess August inflation data and the indirect and second-round effects of energy prices to determine whether to raise rates further.