ROME, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Euro currency zone economies are responding unevenly to the economic turbulence of recent weeks, raising the stakes for the European Central Bank (ECB) as it prepares to raise interest rates for the first time in more than a decade.
The economic indicator most economists are keeping an eye on is inflation. Prices across the 19-nation currency zone rose a record 8.6 percent in June compared to the same month in 2021, according to Eurostat.
That figure broke the previous euro-area high set just a month earlier, when in May year-on-year inflation came in at 8.1 percent.
The European Union began tracking euro area economic data in 1997, two years ahead of the creation of the common currency.
But even eurozone price increases vary, from a low of 5.2 percent in France to 20.0 percent in Estonia in May, which along with Lithuania (where prices rose 18.9 percent) and Latvia (16.9 percent) are the euro area countries hardest hit by rising energy prices sparked by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
In Spain, prices rose 10.2 percent in June on an annual basis, the highest rate since 1985. The 8.0-percent rate recorded for Italy in June was its highest since 1986.
