Inflation peaked at 10.6 percent in October. Experts had expected a decline, but only to 10.4 percent.
Energy prices continue to rise the most, but not as strongly as last month. Compared to November 2021, it was still 34.9 percent higher. Food and luxury goods prices increased by 13.6 percent. Here, the upward trend in prices has increased. Other goods prices increased by 6.1 percent. Services were 4.2 percent more expensive than a year ago.
Core inflation, excluding energy and food, was stable at 5 percent. Economists pay particular attention to this figure because it shows the extent to which companies reflect cost increases, especially in energy, into consumer prices. This could result in so-called runoff effects in the form of higher wage demands. Experts talk about a price-wage spiral.
The 2 percent price target of the European Central Bank in the medium term has been clearly exceeded. However, there is some debate over whether monetary authorities will slow down their tightening pace anytime soon. The background is the weakening economy, which has suffered from the consequences of the Ukrainian war. It is currently unclear whether the ECB plans to raise interest rates again by 0.75 percentage points or 0.5 percentage points at its next meeting in mid-December.
(SDA)