Eurozone inflation jumps to 2.5% in March

Eurozone inflation jumps to 2.5% in March on x (opens in a new window) Eurozone inflation jumps to 2.5% in March on facebook (opens in a new window) Eurozone inflation jumps to 2.5% in March on linkedin (opens in a new window) Eurozone inflation jumps to 2.5% in March on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Eurozone inflation jumps to 2.5% in March on x (opens in a new window) Eurozone inflation jumps to 2.5% in March on facebook (opens in a new window) Eurozone inflation jumps to 2.5% in March on linkedin (opens in a new window) Eurozone inflation jumps to 2.5% in March on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Olaf Storbeck in Frankfurt Published March 31 2026 Jump to comments section Print this page Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Eurozone inflation jumped to 2.5 per cent in March as soaring energy prices triggered by the Iran war pushed price growth to the highest level in close to two years. The preliminary estimate for March was slightly lower than economists’ forecast in a Reuters poll but was a sharp increase from 1.9 per cent in February. It is the first time since early 2025 that the inflation rate has risen markedly above the European Central Bank’s medium-term target of 2 per cent. The month-on-month rise of 0.6 percentage points is the biggest since late 2022 when energy prices shot up after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Traders are pricing two or three quarter-point increases in the ECB’s benchmark interest rate by the end of 2026 in a series of moves that could start as early as April. Investors expect that policymakers will try to prevent a spillover of higher energy prices into wages and other prices. Brent crude prices have surged by more than 50 per cent since the start of the war in late February to above $110 a barrel. ECB president Christine Lagarde told a conference in Frankfurt last week that the central bank would only need to act if infla...