via WOLF STREET:
Inflation in the Eurozone jumped to 9.1% in August, a new record in the Eurozone data going back to 1997, according to preliminary data released today by Eurostat. It topped out at 25.2% in Estonia. Germany hit at a record 8.8%.
This spike of inflation started suddenly in early 2021, after years of ECB money-printing that turned into a mania during the pandemic, and after years of the ECB’s negative-interest rate idiocy. For years, it seemed the ECB would get away with these policies without creating runaway inflation, and then suddenly in early 2021, the dam broke, and inflation washed over the land.
By July 2021, Eurozone inflation shot past the ECB’s inflation target of 2%. By August 2021, the inflation rate hit 3.0%, and shooting higher.
At the time, the ECB regurgitated the Fed’s line that this inflation was just temporary, and it unhesitatingly continued with its negative-interest rate idiocy and printed money with reckless abandon.
