As bad as inflation seems in the U.S., it is much worse in the Eurozone where inflation jumped 9.1% in August – a new record for Eurozone data that goes back to 1997.
Estonia led the way with a huge 25.2% rise, while Germany hit a record 8.8%. After years of money printing by the European Central Bank (ECB) that turned into an absolute torrent during the pandemic, inflation “suddenly” spiked in early 2021.
By July 2021, Eurozone inflation had shot past the ECB’s inflation target of 2%, and by August inflation had hit 3% and continued shooting higher. At the time, the ECB parroted the Federal Reserve’s line that this inflation was “transitory”, and it continued on its course of non-stop money printing.
By January 2022, just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Eurozone inflation had shot to 5.1%, with two Baltic states already in the double-digits. And since the invasion of Ukraine, the upward trajectory of inflation has continued unabated. The chart below, from wolfstreet.com, represents every European central banker’s nightmare.
