German inflation picked up pace in July, provisional data showed Thursday, as energy price growth accelerated.
Overall inflation came in at 2.8 percent in July, statistics office Destatis said, up from 2.3 percent in June.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, price growth came in at just 2.4 percent.
But energy prices were up 8.3 percent – a faster rate of growth than in May or June.
Energy costs have been volatile amid the collapse of a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East war, with Iran declaring the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway that normally carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas — closed.
A fuel duty cut in Germany designed to protect consumers from price rises also expired at the end of June.
The figures could add to the likelihood of the ECB increasing rates at its next meeting in September in a bid to keep inflation at the central bank’s two-percent target.
READ ALSO: Is the cost of living coming down in Germany?
Germany accounts for about a quarter of euro area GDP and ECB President Christine Lagarde opened the door to a possible rate hike at the bank’s most recent meeting last week where the ECB held rates.
“There were some governors who asked themselves whether we should not consider a hike,” she said.
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