Euro zone inflation reached a new record high in June just ahead of the European Central Bank’s first rate increase in 11 years. Headline inflation came in at 8.6% (year-on-year) for last month, according to preliminary figures from Europe’s statistics office Eurostat released Friday. That beat a prediction of 8.4% in a Reuters poll of economists. The rate had reached 8.1% in May which means the cost of living is continuing to surge across the euro zone nations. Germany surprised many earlier this week when it reported a drop of 0.5 percentage points in inflation month-on-month. Experts said this was due to new ... (full story)