The euro zone's annual inflation rate unexpectedly edged up in July due to rising energy costs, official data showed today.
Consumer price increases in the single currency area reached 2.6% in July, up from a 2.5% rate in June, the EU's statistics agency said, higher than experts' forecast.
Economists surveyed by FactSet had predicted that inflation would ease to 2.4% in July.
The rise was thanks to energy prices, which accelerated in July to 1.3%, significantly higher than the 0.2% recorded last month, according to Eurostat.
Food and drinks prices rose by 2.3% this month, albeit at a slightly slower rate than the 2.4% registered in June.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices and is a key indicator for the bank, was unchanged at 2.9% in July, Eurostat said.
Experts for FactSet had expected it to cool to 2.8%.
The data proves inflation remains sticky since the euro zone recorded a rate of 2.6% in February this year despite slight drops to 2.4% before rising again. It still remains above the European Central Bank's 2% target.
But it has come down significantly since the peak of 10.6% recorded in October 2022 after energy prices soared following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
That prompted the ECB to aggressively raise interest rates to cool red-hot inflation until it cut rates for the first time in five years last month.
The ECB held off from a second rate cut in July but there are expectations it will lower borrowing costs again in September.
Inflation also rose in Europe's two biggest economies, Germany and France, edging up to 2.6% in July from 2.5% in June in both countries.
Across the euro zone, Finland recorded the lowest inflation rate in July, at 0.6%, Eurostat data showed. Latvia came second, registering 0.8% inflation this month.
Belgium remained the highest, reaching 5.5% in July.
The CSO's "flash" estimate of Irish inflation yesterday showed that the annual rate came in at 1.5% in the year to July, unchanged from a more than three-year low in June.
Today's euro zone inflation figures come out a day after official data showed the euro zone grew by 0.3% between April and June this year, slightly higher than the predicted 0.2%.
But there are concerns about the euro zone economy's lacklustre performance, especially when compared with the US and China, which are growing at a faster rate.
The latest "flash" estimate of inflation from the Central Statistics Office shows that the annual rate came in at 1.5% in the year to July, unchanged from a more than three-year low in June.
