Euro Area’s Inflation Shock Weighs Most on Poorest Households

The euro area’s poorest households are disproportionately suffering from record inflation and also have smaller financial buffers to cope with the shock, according to European Central Bank research.

With less affluent households spending a greater share of income on food and energy -- whose costs have surged -- they face a higher effective inflation rate than richer peers. The difference is currently the widest since 2006, researchers said in an Economic Bulletin article published on Wednesday.