The virus of inflation will soon be here.
* * * * * J B K * * * * *
San Francisco
European inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in more than a year while the region's unemployment rate remained at an 11-year high.
Consumer prices in the 16-nation euro region rose 1.5 percent in April from a year earlier after a 1.4 percent gain in March, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today in an initial estimate. That's the fastest inflation since December 2008 and is in line with economists' estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Unemployment held at 10 percent in March, the highest since August 1998, a separate report showed.
Oil prices have surged 16 percent in the past three months, pushing up inflation even as companies are cutting costs and eliminating jobs. While European economic confidence improved to the highest in more than two years in April, concern that the Greek crisis is spreading may prompt delays in hiring plans.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=a11X4yUYAd8M
