Eurostat said consumer prices in the 13 countries using the euro rose 0.5 percent month-on-month for a year-on-year 3.1 percent jump, up from 2.6 percent in October and above the initial 3.0 percent estimate which shaped market expectations.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Expensive oil and food boosted euro zone inflation in November even higher than initially estimated to its steepest level in six and a half years, the European Union's statistics office said on Friday.
Eurostat said consumer prices in the 13 countries using the euro rose 0.5 percent month-on-month for a year-on-year 3.1 percent jump, up from 2.6 percent in October and above the initial 3.0 percent estimate which shaped market expectations.
It was the highest rate since May 2001, when inflation also reached 3.1 percent -- its strongest level since measurements for what is now the euro zone started in January 1997.
The European Central Bank wants to keep annual inflation just below 2 percent, but left interest rates unchanged last week because of concerns about the full impact of the global credit crunch on the euro zone economy.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Energy prices surged 3.4 percent in November against October and were 9.7 percent higher than a year before, while food, alcohol and tobacco prices rose 0.7 percent on the month and 4.0 percent in annual terms.
Without volatile unprocessed food and energy prices, or what the ECB calls core inflation, costs rose 0.2 percent month-on-month for a 2.3 percent annual gain.
In the euro zone's biggest economy, Germany, inflation was 3.3 percent year-on-year. France and Italy saw price increases of 2.6 percent each.
In Slovenia, which joined the euro zone only this year, inflation jumped to 5.7 percent. It was also high in Spain -- 4.1 percent, and in Luxembourg, at 4.0 percent.
Economists and the ECB expect above-target inflation to last for much of 2008.
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, editing by Dale Hudson)
