BRUSSELS (Euronews) - Eurozone inflation surged more than expected in April, as the impact of trade tariffs began to reverberate through the consumer basket, posing a fresh challenge for the ECB.
Price pressures in the eurozone exceeded expectations in April, raising fresh challenges over the disinflation trend and potentially complicating the European Central Bank’s (ECB) roadmap to lower interest rates further in the coming months.
According to preliminary figures released by Eurostat on Friday, consumer prices rose 2.2% year-on-year, unchanged from March but slightly above the 2.1% forecast by economists.
On a monthly basis, inflation accelerated by 0.6% as in March, suggesting that disinflationary momentum may be stalling.
More worryingly for policymakers in Frankfurt, core inflation—which excludes volatile food and energy prices—rose to 2.7% in April, up from 2.4% the previous month and well above the 2.5% consensus estimate.
It was the first uptick in core inflation since May 2024, with services once again leading the charge.
Services inflation, a central metric in the ECB’s assessment of underlying price pressures, surged to 3.9% annually, up from 3.5% in March.
On a month-on-month basis, services prices increased by 0.9%.
The rise in food, alcohol and tobacco inflation—from 2.9% to 3.0%—added to the upside pressures, while energy prices continued to drag on the headline figure, falling 3.5% compared to the same period last year.
Across the euro area, inflation remained highly uneven. Estonia recorded the highest annual inflation rate at 4.4%, followed by the Netherlands and Latvia at 4.1%. France saw the lowest price growth, with annual inflation at just 0.8%.