London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Is the cost of living crunch starting to ease?

Is the cost of living crunch starting to ease?

Eurozone figures are expected to show inflation slowed down in December, bringing hopes of relief to consumers and governments.

Inflation in the eurozone is expected to have fallen sharply at the end of 2022, giving some reprieve to people struggling to pay bills — and to leaders feeling their wrath.

Record-high rates are expected to have returned to single digits in December, with national data from Germany, France and Spain in recent days showing price increases easing more quickly than forecast. In Italy, inflation also came off its peaks.

Hotly anticipated figures for the eurozone as a whole are released on Friday.

Government programs to limit gas prices as well as falling energy costs and a stronger euro contributed to signs that Europe may be able to start putting the worst of the cost-of-living crisis behind it. That will come as a relief to leaders battling pan-European waves of public discontent, protests and strikes.

Before national data trickled in, a Reuters survey of analysts pointed to inflation slowing to 9.7 percent in December from 10 percent in November. More recent estimates, including those of Pantheon Macroeconomics’ economist Claus Vistesen, put the figure around 9 percent.

Slower price rises will be welcome in Berlin, where government popularity has fallen massively ahead of key regional elections. Increasing numbers of voters fear inflation will undermine private wealth, a key survey showed. Germany's ruling coalition is falling in opinion polls and is on track to lose its majority in the parliament.

In France, the government is keeping a close watch on inflation as it prepares to launch a highly sensitive pension reform next week, framing it as part of a broader effort to improve the country’s economy and boost growth. While price rises in France have been lower than in most eurozone countries thanks to massive government support, the cost of living remains people’s No. 1 concern for the new year, according to opinion polls.

The government this week announced new measures to help small businesses, including the country’s cherished bakeries, cope with soaring energy bills.

Still, President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday struck a cautionary tone. “We're probably not at peak inflation yet,” he said. “We will have prices that go up.”

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has sounded equally circumspect.

She has said inflation may jump again in January and February, when previous spikes in energy prices are expected to reach the retail level, before coming down more sustainably later this year.

ECB forecasts from December still show inflation averaging 6.3 percent this year.


European Central Bank President Christine has come under fire from governments fearing the central bank’s tightening will push the eurozone economy into a deeper than necessary recession

And while governments may feel pressure on them is easing, the same can hardly be said for the ECB.

Lagarde has come under fire from governments fearing the central bank’s tightening will push the eurozone economy into a deeper-than-necessary recession, adding to the economic hardship of disgruntled voters.

Falling inflation at the same time as slowing economic activity will expose Lagarde to heftier criticism against her tightening course. Italy, under new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has been particularly outspoken, with senior ministers attacking December's 0.5 percent interest rate hike and ECB pledges to do more as "baffling," "crazy" and “worrying."

While inflation coming down faster than expected may allow the Governing Council to raise interest rates less aggressively overall, the central bank will not shy away from further tightening as core inflation — which filters out volatile components such as food and energy — may still be on the rise and is running at more than three times the ECB’s 2 percent target.

ING economist Carsten Brzeski said the current inflation environment will likely see the ECB raise rates at the next two meetings by a total of one percentage point. It is only after new inflation forecasts become available in March that there could be momentum to pause the hiking cycle, he added. Markets are currently betting on a policy rate of 3.5 percent by mid-year, up from 2 percent now.

As Lagarde put it in December: “Anybody who thinks that this is a pivot for the ECB is wrong. We’re not pivoting, we’re not wavering.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×