ECB’s fears grow as French, Spanish inflation inclines

Inflation in France and Spain reached a record high in February, which will be pushing the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise interest rates in March, CNN Business Arabic reported on Wednesday.

France’s inflation climbed to 7.2 percent in February, after being seven percent in January, while Spain’s inflation reached 6.1 percent in February, after being 5.9 percent in January, data showed.

Being the largest economies in the Eurozone, France and Spain’s inflation hike raises the ECB’s concerns, which is expected by experts to raise interest rates by 50 basis point in March.

Despite the possibility of a decline in the Eurozone’s inflation from 8.6 percent to 8.2 percent on an annual basis, an interest rate increase is still needed in order to control the extremely high inflation levels, economists mentioned.