President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde .
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stephanie lecocq/Shutterstock
The annual rate of inflation in the eurozone fell in November for the first time since mid-2021 , a development economists warned wouldn’t keep the European Central Bank from increasing interest rates further.
Consumer-price inflation across the 19 countries that share the euro has increased since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s decision to weaponize the country’s vast stores of energy to undermine European support for Kyiv.
As a result of rising energy prices, the eurozone’s inflation rate had continued to rise even as U.S. inflation eased for four straight months from July, prompting the ECB to raise its key interest rate more sharply than at any time in its history.
Wednesday’s data from the European Union’s statistics agency showed that consumer prices in November were 10% higher than a year earlier, down from the 10.6% annual rate of inflation recorded in October as energy prices fell. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal last week had expected to see a decline to 10.4%.
This means that while prices continue to rise rapidly, they are no longer doing so at a faster rate every month. This is a long way from inflation being under control or prices stabilizing and it doesn’t guarantee that the inflation rate won’t pick up again.
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