BRUSSELS: Eurozone inflation surged to its highest rate on record in November, fuelled by soaring energy prices, official data showed on Tuesday.

Consumer prices picked up to 4.9 per cent from 4.1 per cent in the previous month, the highest reading since the official statistics agency Eurostat began compiling the data more than 20 years ago.

The figure is more than double the European Central Bank’s target of 2 per cent.

A member of the ECB’s Executive Board, Isabel Schnabel, had predicted earlier in November that inflation would hit its highest level this month since the euro was introduced in 1999.

The pace of price rises would then slow over the course of the coming year, Schnabel said.

Soaring inflation has put pressure on the ECB and the US Federal Reserve to rein in their vast economic stimulus programmes, with the markets fearing that the policymakers could prematurely cut interest rates to tame prices.

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