frankfurt Days before the crucial ECB meeting in mid-December, Austrian central bank chief Robert Holzmann warned of the risk of excessive inflation. He considers it “very unlikely” that inflation in the euro area “will reach a value of less than two percent in 2022 as a whole”. [wird]”, she told Handelsblatt. In its current forecast from September, the ECB is still assuming a rate of 1.7 percent for the coming year. It will make new predictions in December.

Holzmann expects inflation to peak at the end of the year, as some of the base effect from last year’s very low data will be eliminated and energy prices will no longer rise as rapidly. “On the other hand, delivery barriers will continue to play a major role, for example in the case of food.”