LONDON: Eurozone inflation jumped to the highest in a decade in August, testing policy makers’ insistence that a post-crisis spike in cost pressures should prove temporary.

       Consumer prices rose 3%, exceeding the predictions of all 37 economists in a Bloomberg survey. A measure of core inflation that stripped out volatile items such as energy and food reached 1.6%, the highest since 2012.

       While a global supply squeeze was driving up costs, the price surge in the region was also fuelled by one-time factors such as lower year-earlier comparisons. Viewing the jump as temporary, the European Central Bank (ECB) was keeping monetary policy emphatically looser than counterparts such as the Federal Reserve, which expects to wind down stimulus soon.

       Still, eurozone price growth may keep accelerating for now. Imported inflation in Germany, the region’s largest economy, was running at 15%. Retailers across the 19-nation region planned to jack up prices in the next three months and consumers had already adjusted, saying they were less likely to make major purchases in the coming year.

       A separate report showed France’s inflation rate jumped in August by the most in almost two decades to 2.4%, the highest since 2018.

       Despite price growth running well above the 2% level the ECB aimed to achieve in the medium term, officials led by president Christine Lagarde insisted that it would slow again next year. Bank of France governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said he saw no risk of overheating in the bloc. ― Bloomberg