Inflation in Eurozone.

Eurozone inflation surged to a record high of 10.7 per cent in October, keeping the pressure on the European Central Bank to continue raising interest rates despite a sharp growth slow in the third quarter. The increase in eurozone consumer prices accelerated from 9.9 per cent in September, which was already the highest in the 23-year history of the euro. The latest high, reported by the European Commission's statistics arm Euro-stat, also outstripped the 10.2 per cent expected by economists polled by Reuters. It was the 12th consecutive month that inflation had set a record high in the eurozone, taking it to more than five times the ECB's 2 per cent target.

Claus Vistesen, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the latest inflation figures were «a proper Halloween nightmare for the ECB». The central bank raised its nominal policy rate by 0.75 percentage points last week to 1.5 per cent to tackle «far too high» inflation and said more increases were likely, despite signs that the euro area is on the verge of a recession. Moreover, Eurostat's gross domestic product figures published yesterday confirmed that eurozone growth slowed in the third quarter, rising 0.2 per cent from the previous quarter. The figure was in line with expectations but marked a slowdown from growth of 0.8 per cent during the last quarter.

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