BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Eurozone inflation accelerated further in February to hit a fresh record high driven by energy prices, flash estimate from Eurostat showed on Wednesday.
Inflation advanced to 5.8 percent in February from 5.1 percent in January. Inflation was forecast to climb to 5.3 percent.
Core inflation that excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, increased to 2.7 percent from 2.3 percent in the previous month.
Among components of inflation, energy logged another sharp growth of 31.7 percent. This was followed by a 4.1 percent rise in food, alcohol and tobacco prices. Non-energy industrial goods prices were up 3 percent and services cost grew 2.5 percent.
On a monthly basis, the harmonized index of consumer prices moved up 0.9 percent. Final data is due on March 17.
Further spikes are likely in the near term due to the war in Ukraine, but the European Central Bank is likely to refrain from clear commitments on the monetary path next week as economic uncertainty is massive, Bert Colijn, an ING economist, said.
After February's surprisingly strong inflation outturn and with energy prices surging, euro-zone inflation is very likely to rise above 6 percent in the coming months, Jack Allen-Reynolds, an economist at Capital Economics, said.
It then looks set to remain well above the ECB's target for a long time, most likely ending the year around 4 percent, the economist added.
Among big-four nations, Spain posted an annual inflation of 7.5 percent in February and Italy's rate was 6.2 percent. Germany and France logged 5.5 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.
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