Inflation in the euro zone reached a record 3.6% in March, the European Union's Eurostat data agency said today, revising up a first estimate of 3.5%.
The rate, the highest since the launch of the single European currency in 1999, exceeded economist forecasts for 3.5%.
Record oil and food prices have fuelled a recent spike in inflation which reached 3.3% in February in the euro zone. In March 2007, inflation stood at 1.9%.
The March rate brings euro zone inflation even further out of the European Central Bank's comfort zone, which it defines as annual consumer price growth of close to but less than 2%.
The new record also further complicates the European Central Bank's task of keeping inflation under control in the face of an increasingly downbeat outlook for the euro zone economy.
While headline inflation soared to a new high, underlying price growth, which excludes the impact of volatile items like energy and food prices, also crept higher to 2% from 1.8% in February.
The data came after oil prices struck a series of new highs yesterday with New York crude crossing $114 a barrel for the first time.
