BRUSSELS, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The inflation across the 19-member Eurozone hit a 4-month high in August due to energy price hike, official data showed, with core inflation stayed flat.
The annual inflation is expected to stand at 1.5 percent in August, the highest rate since May, according to an estimate of Eurostat, the European Union (EU)'s statistics agency.
August's reading came out of market expectation, thanks to the energy sector which has seen its price climbed by 4 percent this month, rather higher than the 2.2 percent increase in July.
The reading may be welcoming to the EU policy makers who seek to push prices in the single currency zone to targeted "close to but below 2 percent." But the core inflation, stripping out volatile items such as energy and food, stayed flat at 1.2 percent in August.
The core rate, although better than last year's performance which showed below 1 percent, suggested that there was still lack of momentum in Eurozone which relied heavily on the central bank's massive stimulus measures to improve the inflation.
