Eurozone Inflation Accelerates to 2.9% on Energy Price Surge

Consumer price inflation in the eurozone accelerated to 2.9% in July, according to preliminary estimates from Eurostat. This marks a slight increase from June's 2.8%, which was in line with analysts' expectations.

The jump in energy prices was the main driver of this growth, rising by 10% year-on-year after easing to 8.5% in June. Food, alcohol, and tobacco prices also increased, albeit at a slower rate than the previous month, at 1.2% year-on-year.

Excluding the more volatile categories of food, alcohol, tobacco, and energy prices, core inflation rose to 2.5% from 2.4%. The increase in core inflation was largely due to higher services inflation (at 3.3%) and an acceleration in non-energy industrial goods price growth (rising to 0.9%).