Inflation in the euro zone reached another record high of 9.1% in August, the EU statistical office Eurostat reported.

Consumer price inflation in 19 eurozone countries rose 0.6 percent month-on-month and 9.1 percent year-on-year, the highest since the euro was introduced in 1999.

Eurostat said the 3.95 percentage point year-on-year increase was due to more expensive energy, the cost of which rose because of the war in Ukraine, and 2.25 percentage points to food, alcohol and tobacco.

But even when energy-dependent energy and unprocessed food - what the European Central Bank calls core inflation - are excluded, prices were still 5.5 percent higher than a year earlier.

Manufactured goods were up 5.1% from 12 months earlier, and services were up 3.8%. The ECB, whose overall inflation target is 2%, raised its key interest rates by an unprecedented 75 basis points last week and promised further increases, giving priority to fighting inflation even as the EU moves toward a winter recession and gas rationing.