INFLATIONARY pressures are rising in the eurozone, suggesting the European Central Bank’s trillion-euro bond buying program is having the desired effect, an indicator designed to predict cyclical trends showed Friday.

    The Eurozone Future Inflation Gauge (EZFIG), a measure of the outlook for inflation published by the Economic Cycle Research Institute, rose to 99.7 in April from March’s 99.1.

    “The EZFIG inched up once more, reaching a 46-month high in April. Thus, eurozone inflation will likely rise further in the months ahead,” said Lakshman Achuthan, ECRI’s chief operations officer.

    Inflation returned to the bloc last month with a higher than expected 0.3 percent increase in consumer prices after five months of falls and stagnation, official data showed Tuesday.

    Eurozone inflation was higher than expected in May, data showed last week, as consumer prices started rising again after five months of falls and stagnation despite a continued strong drag on the index from cheaper energy.

    The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said consumer prices in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.3 percent year on year last month after a flat reading in April, beating market expectations of a 0.2 percent increase.

    The Eurostat estimate does not contain monthly data, but the annual data showed that more expensive unprocessed food and services had the biggest upward impact on the overall index.

    Excluding the volatile energy prices, which were 5 percent lower in May than 12 months earlier, consumer prices rose 1.0 percent.

    Excluding energy and unprocessed food — or what the European Central Bank (ECB) calls core inflation — prices were up 0.9 percent, accelerating from 0.7 percent in April.(SD-Agencies)