FRANKFURT, Germany—Europe’s painful inflation has inched higher, extending the squeeze on households and keeping pressure on the European Central Bank to unleash what could be another large interest rate increase.
Consumer prices in the 20 countries using the euro currency jumped 7 percent in April from a year earlier, just up from the annual rate of 6.9 percent in March, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Tuesday.
Food price inflation eased a little, falling to an annual rate of 13.6 percent from March’s 15.5 percent, while energy prices rose a more modest 2.5 percent.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and fuel, slowed slightly but was still high at 5.6 percent, underlining the expectation that the ECB will press ahead with its campaign to beat inflation into submission with rate hikes. The question is: How quickly will the bank go?…