Recently, however, euroarea inflation has accelerated, remaining above 3% for the past seven months and reaching a worrying record high of 3.7% in May. This confirms that the current upward pressures on euro-area inflation, which result largely from sharp increases in energy and food prices at the global level, are rather persistent.
On the face of it, the present inflationary pattern seems to bear some resemblance to that of the 1970s. Not only is inflation unusually high in many countries but the oil price increase that has occurred gradually over the past few years is now comparable in real terms to that of the 1970s.