The eurozone’s inflation rate rose to a fresh record high in January, an unwelcome surprise for policy makers at the European Central Bank who have said they don’t expect to raise their key interest rate this year.
As in the U.S., consumer-price inflation in the eurozone rose much more sharply in 2021 than policy makers had expected. The eurozone’s annual rate of consumer-price inflation ended 2021 at 5%, then the highest on record and more than twice the ECB’s target.
