High oil prices stoke eurozone producer inflation

Eurozone producer prices surged in October, posting their biggest annual increase since February 2001 as soaring oil prices boosted energy costs, the European Union statistics office said on Thursday. Producer prices rose 0.7 percent from the previous month, the largest monthly jump since January 2003, and climbed 4.0 percent from a year earlier, according to Eurostat.
The data, which comes as the European Central Bank holds a policy setting meeting, was bang in line with the consensus forecast of economists polled by Reuters.