High energy costs push eurozone consumer price inflation to 1.5%

Annual eurozone consumer price inflation rose to a 16-month high of 1.5% in April, driven by rising energy prices, according to data released last week by Eurostat.

Annual inflation was up from 1.4% in March and 0.6% a year earlier. Inflation for the month of April was 0.5%. Howard Archer, the chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, says the figures are unlikely to be a source of major concern for the European Central Bank. He argues inflationary pressures actually waned last month, with core consumer price inflation, including energy and unprocessed food prices, falling to a 10-year low of 0.7%, from 0.9% in March. “Given oil prices bottomed out in the first quarter of 2009, the upward impact on inflation from unfavourable ener...