Inflation has reached record highs in countries using the euro, as Europe tries to tackle its cost of living crisis. Statistics show that Inflation reached 8.6% in June in the 19 countries that use the currency, breaking the previous record of 8.1% in May. One of the reason cited to be the cause is the increase in energy costs, fuelled by the war on Ukraine. In interview given to Euronews by the European Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, he indicated that even if the situation is not good, they still believe that they will have growth at 2.7% this year, which will decline to 1.5% next year. In addition, he indicates that their estimation shows that inflation will reach a peak in the third quarter of this year but will slowly go down in the last quarter of this year. On the question on what are they doing to mitigate these scenarios, he replied that three main things are being done: first, they are getting ready for the winter with storage, second, they are looking on how to substitute Russian gas oil by other sources and thirdly they are trying to cushion the impact of these energy prices and high inflation, especially for more vulnerable households. Full interview can be accessed on attached link.
