Food prices have overtaken energy as the fastest-rising item in the inflation basket in Europe.
nnual headline inflation in the 20-member euro area was almost flat in February at 8.5pc, Eurostat data shows, down slightly from 8.6pc in January.
But food, alcohol and tobacco prices continued their upward trend, soaring by 15pc, while energy price hikes slowed to 13.7pc, the EU’s statistics agency said.
Services and industrial goods prices are also rising, despite the slowdown in headline inflation.
Month on month, prices rose by 0.8 points, with energy the only item to fall in price. Food prices rose by 1.6pc in the month, with fresh food soared 3.6pc. It comes as shoppers in Ireland and across Europe face shortages of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers due to bad weather and high energy bills.
The results give the European Central Bank more ammunition to act aggressively on interest rates in two weeks.
ECB president Christine Lagarde said on Thursday that interest rate hikes may need to continue beyond March.
"At this point in time, it's possible that we continue on that path," Ms Lagarde told Spanish television show Espejo Publico on Thursday. "By which amount in each and every meeting is impossible to say at this point."
The ECB is to raise rates by half a point on March 16 in a well-flagged move, with analysts raising their expectations for the peak rate to nearly 4pc. Hopes that rate reductions would follow later in the year are ebbing.
Inflation is still in double digits in six out of the eurozone’s 20 members and is over 20pc in Latvia.
Most of the eurozone’s largest economies, including Germany, Spain and France, saw price hikes quicken in February.
Hopes that the rate of inflation in Ireland will ease were dashed earlier this week as the Central Statistics Office data showed prices here rose 8pc in the year to February, up from 7.5pc in January.
It was the first time the inflation rate had risen since October.
Irish prices rose 1.4pc between January and February.
The higher-than-expected inflation rate is despite energy prices falling by 0.2pc in the month. But they are up 29.2pc since February last year. Food prices are estimated to have risen by 1.2pc in the last month and increased by 13.4pc in the last year.
The Government is pressing energy companies to pass on the fall in wholesale prices to consumers here, as bills skyrocket.