Spring Statement: Sunak announces 7.4% expected rise in inflation

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Inflation surged to 7.5 percent in March for countries within the Eurozone, sparking fury against the European Central Bank (ECB) as it seeks to fight spiralling prices without hurting growth.

The sharp rise in prices is believed to be driven by rising energy and food prices due to the Russia’s war in Ukraine.

On Friday, Eurostat data showed that energy prices accelerated to 44.7 percent from 32 percent in February.

Out of all member states, inflation was the highest in Lithuania at 15.6 percent, and the Netherlands wasn’t far behind with 11.9 percent inflation.

Among the largest member states, inflation in Germany was up 7.6 percent, in France 5.1 percent, in Italy 7.0 percent and in Spain 9.8 percent.

Brexiteers have voiced their relief for having left the bloc amid the current inflation crisis.

Express.co.uk reader Johnd101 wrote: “EU having to print money now the UK has left the building. Hilarious.”

JaguarV8 said: “‘Outside is better!’ EU ‘lies’ Just waiting for a Europhile to say we (17.4 million Brits) didn’t ‘know’ what we were voting for!!! We DID and every day PROVES we are RIGHT!!”

Another simply wrote: “I’m so glad we’ve left the bloc & that I live in England right now.”

According to Hamgar: “The ECB has no money as the cash cow has left, so all they can do is print more and create inflation.”

Worryingly, almost all predictions point to further price hikes across Europe in the coming months, leaving the ECB with a difficult policy dilemma.

The bank’s main task is to get inflation to two percent but tightening policy now would risk crashing an economy already struggling from the fallout of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the lingering impact of the pandemic.

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The UK Government has yet to announce the country’s inflation for March, but in February it jumped to 6.2 percent from 5.5 percent – a 30-year high.

The Bank of England predicts UK inflation could hit eight percent this spring, somewhat lower than some Eurozone member states.

Despite higher inflation expected to hit the UK in the coming months, the central bank believes it is unlikely the price of energy and imported goods will continue to rise as rapidly in the long term.

The Bank’s predictions state that inflation should be around the 2 percent target in two or three years’ time.

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