Inflation jumps across eurozone, raising pressure on ECB to hike - The Business Times

Markets expect four more rate increases over the next year after they were raised twice in the summer [BERLIN] Inflation rose far quicker than expected in some of the eurozone’s biggest economies this month due to the energy-price shock of the Iran war, increasing pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise interest rates again. The ECB has lifted rates twice this year to prevent rapid price growth from getting embedded, and investors have sharply raised rate hike bets in the past few weeks as natural gas, petrol and diesel prices have all soared. France’s harmonised inflation rate was 3.4 per cent year-on-year in September, up from 2.6 per cent in August, while in Italy it jumped to 4.1 per cent from August’s 3.