Surging consumer demand across the euro zone is playing an increasing role in excessive inflation, a European Central Bank study showed on Friday, suggesting that - as some policymakers have feared - price pressures are becoming more entrenched.
"Over recent months, supply and demand factors have played broadly similar roles in (underlying) inflation," the ECB said.
"More recently the contributions of predominantly demand-driven components to services inflation have outweighed those of predominantly supply-driven components," it added.
Policymakers, already engaged in the fastest policy tightening on record, are expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points on Oct 27.
