Eurozone inflation outpaces forecasts amid energy price shocks - businessday.co.za

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% year-on-year in September, up from 2.6% in August, while in Italy it jumped to 4.1% from August’s 3.2%, all above the ECB’s 2% target, data showed on Wednesday. German inflation accelerated slightly more than expected in September, rising to 3.