Eurozone inflation hits another record high heaping further pressure on ECB to act

Prices among the countries that use the euro are accelerating at the fastest rate on record, reveals official figures published today.

Inflation in the Eurozone hit 5.8 per cent this month, the hottest print recorded since the introduction of the euro, according to Eurostat, the bloc’s statistics agency.

Rapidly accelerating prices is piling pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to act to tame inflation.

The bloc’s central bank has left interest rates in negative territory for several years, which has arguably contributed to pushing inflation to eye watering levels.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is widely expected to speed up the rate of price increases in Europe if future Western sanctions target energy flows from Moscow into the Continent.

Europe is heavily reliant on Russia for energy supplies, with the area’s economic powerhouse, Germany, sourcing around 40 per cent of its natural gas inventories from Moscow.

Oil prices jumped around five per cent his morning, with international benchmark Brent Crude topping $111 a barrel for the first time in nearly a decade.

European gas futures – contracts for gas supplies at a later date – soared 36 per cent on fears over the bloc’s gas supplies soon being squeezed