Eurozone inflation climbed in June

The annual inflation rate jumped to 1.6 percent in June in the 17-member eurozone, Eurostat said Tuesday. The inflation rate a year earlier stood at 2.4 percent. From June to July, prices rose 0.1 percent in the eurozone, the countries that use the euro as currency, the data agency said. Inflation remains under the European Central Bank's target of 2 percent or less, but recent gains are significant. Inflation slipped from 2 percent at the first of the year, to 1.2 percent in April, and has clicked 0.2 percentage points higher in each of the past two months. Tuesday's report confirms the data agency's flash estimate released in early July. Including the 27 members of the European Union, Eurostat said Greece had the region's lowest annual inflation rate with prices off 0.3 percent. In Latvia and Poland, the inflation rate in June was 0.2 percent. The highest rates in Europe were posted by Romania, Estonia and the Netherlands with inflation rates at 4.5 percent, 4.1 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. The annual inflation rate for the 27-member EU came to 1.7 percent in June, up from 1.6 percent in May, Eurostat said.