Inflation in the euro area remains at an exceptionally high level.

However, as the European statistical office Eurostat announced on Wednesday, an initial estimate for inflation in April was corrected slightly downwards.

At the end of April, the office had estimated inflation for the month at 7.5 percent, ultimately it was 7.4 percent.

The office had already made a similar correction to its first estimate in March.

Energy prices rose the most compared to the previous year: by 37.5 percent.

Unprocessed food rose 9.2 percent, non-energy industrial goods rose 3.8 percent, and services rose 3.3 percent.

It is striking that energy prices fell by 4 percent compared to March.

So far, energy has only gotten more and more expensive.

Inflation in Switzerland at 2.3 percent

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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Inflation rates are now in double digits in nine countries of the European Union, including five euro countries.

Estonia is at the top with 19.1 percent, ahead of Lithuania with 16.6 percent.

The Netherlands has reached 11.2 percent.

Germany, which comes to an inflation rate of 7.8 percent according to the European calculation method of the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices, is currently slightly above average.

Inflation in the euro area is currently lowest in France and Malta, each at 5.4 percent.

In one euro country, namely Spain, prices actually fell slightly in April compared to the previous month, namely by 0.3 percent.

The inflation rate there fell from 9.8 to 8.3 percent.

In Switzerland, which is neither part of the euro zone nor the EU, the inflation rate was 2.3 percent in April.

The European Central Bank (ECB) could probably react to the high inflation with an interest rate hike in July;

on Wednesday, the Governing Council of the ECB met for a non-monetary policy meeting.

Shorter speaking time for the chief economist?

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the ECB has made changes to the structure of its Council meetings.

Citing insiders, it is said that the regular lectures by ECB chief economist Philip Lane should take up less space at meetings in future.

There should be more discussion about that.

In the past, Lane's presentations were sometimes up to 60 pages long, in the future it should be a maximum of 20 pages.

The presentations should also be “more concise” and repetitions should be avoided.

The length of the meeting had already been extended in April.

Lane recently sent documents to the council members as part of the changes before the meeting, it said.

According to Commerzbank economist Michael Schubert, the reform reflects the intention expressed by ECB President Christine Lagarde when she took office, to give as many council members as possible a say and then to decide by consensus.

According to Reuters, however, there was also criticism that the voice of the chief economist, who was rather cautious in terms of monetary policy, carried too much weight in the debates.