By Scott Kanowsky

Investing.com -- Annual inflation in the eurozone rose to a fresh record high in June, climbing to 8.6%, according to a preliminary estimate from the EU's statistics office on Friday.

The increase, which is also up from the 8.1% May reading of the currency bloc's key consumer price index and higher than analyst estimates of 8.4%, was driven in particular by a spike in prices in energy and food. Stripping away costs for those items, EU-harmonized inflation increased to 4.6% in June from 4.4% in the previous month.

On a monthly basis, eurozone CPI in June held steady at 0.8%.

Meanwhile, price growth in Italy also spiked to a record high in June, coming in at 8.5% compared to 7.3% in May, data showed on Friday. France and Spain also reported new highs earlier this week. The outlier was Germany, where prices unexpectedly dropped on a month-by-month basis.

The latest inflation data comes as the European Central Bank looks set to raise interest rates this month for the first time in 11 years in a bid to curb soaring prices. The ECB has signaled that it will also hike borrowing costs in September, but said the size of the move will depend on incoming data.

However, concerns remain that aggressive policy actions by the central bank may trigger a broader slowdown. The ECB is also moving to address worries over a potential blowout in the gap between sovereign debt yields in peripheral nations like Italy and Spain, and larger economies, particularly Germany.

As of 05:45 AM EST (0945 GMT), EUR/USD was trading down slightly by 0.20% at 1.0462.

Related Articles

Eurozone Inflation Touches New Record High in June

UK manufacturing loses more steam in June -PMI

Euro zone factory production falls in June for first time in two years -PMI