OECD inflation reached its highest since February 1997 in October

Year-on-year inflation in the OECD as a whole jumped again in October to 5.2%, six tenths more than in September, mainly due to energy, and thus reached its highest level since February 1997.

Between October 2020 and the same month of this year, energy prices increased by 24.2%, and that is five points more than in September, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development highlighted in a statement (OECD).

In fact, the inflation rate for energy was thus the highest since July 1980.

Food, for its part, rose by 4.5% year-on-year in October, the same as the previous month. Core inflation – which excludes the most volatile elements that are energy and food – rose three tenths more in October to 3.5%.

The rise in inflation is noticeably different between the member countries. The United States is one of the most affected, with an increase of 6.2% in October after 5.4% in September, which means its highest rate since November 1990.

In the euro zone, the evolution is notably more contained, with a rise of 4.1% compared to 3.4% the previous month.

Among the members of the single currency, the figures were particularly high in Lithuania (8%), Estonia (7%), Latvia (6%) and Spain (5.4%), where in a single month inflation grew by 1.4 percentage points .

Spain is the country of OECD in which higher energy prices are having a greater impact on headline inflation, specifically 4.1 percentage points in October, compared to, for example, 1.8 points in the United States.

Apart from the United States and some countries on the Old Continent, inflation was also soaring in October in Chile (6%, after 5.3% in September) or Mexico (6.2% after 6%), not to mention Turkey ( 19.9%, after 19.6%).