More than 600,000 homeowners face a new interest rate hike with the European Central Bank expected to add another 0.25% to the base rate in June.
It will be only the second ECB interest rate rise in two years - last month it increased the rate 0.25% to 1.25%, adding another €45 a month repayments to a mortgage of €300,000.
Economists expect interest rates to rise to four or five times between now and the end of 2012. Typically, the ECB moves rates by 0.25% a time which would bring the base rate to 2.5%.
The pressure is on the ECB to dampen inflation which rose to 2.8% in April from 2.7% in March, according to estimate today from the European data agency, Eurostat.
April was the fifth month in a row in which inflation was above the 2% target set by the European Central Bank. Economists say the data make an interest rate increase in June more likely.
Euro zone inflation rose above that ceiling for the first time since late 2008 in December, hitting 2.2%, before rising to 2.3% in January and 2.4% in February.
The faster than forecast acceleration, fuelled by a spike in energy costs as well as for raw materials, prompted the ECB this month to lift its benchmark interest rate to 1.25% for the first time in nearly three years.
Inflation in the 17-nation area is at its highest since October 2008 when it hit 3.2%. It then slipped to 2.1% in November 2008 before slipping below 2%.
Euro jobless rate stays under 10% in March
The euro zone unemployment rate was under 10% for the second month in a row in March, official European Union figures showed today.
The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate remained at 9.9% last month, with 15.6 million men and women without a job in the 17-nation single currency area, the Eurostat data agency said.
The number of unemployed people fell by 9,000 between February and March.
The jobless rate in the single currency area had been stuck at 10% since July last year, hitting a record 10.1% in October. It finally fell to 9.9% in February.
Across the wider 27-nation EU, which includes non-euro Britain and Poland, the jobless rate was 9.5% in March, the same rate as in February. About 22.8 million people were looking for work in the EU in March, 10,000 fewer than the previous month.
Spain remains the country with the highest unemployment rate, while the Netherlands recorded the latest rate at 4.2%.
