Inflation in the Eurozone Reached 9.9 Pct in September

Eurostat confirmed that the year-on-year inflation rate in the euro area increased by eight tenths, driven by the rise in energy prices, and stood at 9.9 percent in September. One year before, however, the rate was just 3.4 percent.

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From August to September, the annual inflation rate of the European Union (EU) shifted from 10.1 percent was 10.9 percent. A year earlier, however, the EU inflation was at 3.6 percent.

By country, the lowest annual inflation rates were observed in France (6.2 percent), Malta (7.4 percent) and Finland (8.4 percent) and the highest were registered in Estonia (24.1 percent). , Lithuania (22.5 percent) and Latvia (22.0 percent). The inflation rate remained stable in Croatia and increased in twenty other EU countries.

In September, the greatest contributions to the annual inflation rate in the euro zone came from energy (with a rise of 4.19 percentage points), followed by food, alcohol and tobacco (the increase was 2.47 percentage points), services (with a rise of 1.80 points) and industrial goods excluding energy (with a rise of 1.47 points).

The prospects that the situation will improve in the coming year differ from country to country. OnThursday, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said he aims to bring down the country's annual inflation rate to 5 percent by the beginning of 2023.

Presenting the government's economic objectives at a debate on the protection of companies, Le Maire said that he wanted to reduce inflation to 4 percent by the end of 2023 and 2 percent in 2024.

"It is not just an economic difficulty, it is a social difficulty, a political difficulty. People feel taken by the throat... and that is how political crises start," Le Maire acknowledged.