ECB President Christine Lagarde told France Inter radio inflation will “stabilize” and “ease gradually in the course of 2022. “.
“The cycle of the economic recovery in the U.S. is ahead of that in Europe. We thus have every reason not to act as rapidly and as brutally that one can imagine the Fed would do,” she said.
Nevertheless, she added, “we have started to react and we obviously are standing ready, to react by monetary policy measures if the figures, the data, the facts demand it.”
Eurozone CPI finalized at 5% yoy in Dec, EU at 5.3% yoy
Eurozone CPI was finalized at record 5.0% yoy in December, up from November’s 4.0%. Core CPI was finalized at 2.6% yoy. The highest contribution to came from energy (+2.46%), followed by services (+1.02%), non-energy industrial goods (+0.78%) and food, alcohol & tobacco (+0.71%).
EU CPI was finalized at 5.3% yoy, up from November’s 5.2% yoy. The lowest annual rates were registered in Malta (2.6%), Portugal (2.8%) and Finland (3.2%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (12.0%), Lithuania (10.7%) and Poland (8.0%). Compared with November, annual inflation fell in seven Member States, remained stable in two and rose in eighteen.
Full release here.