MADRID: Booming fuel prices helped to push Spain's annual inflation rate to a two-year high of 3.4 percent in February, official data showed Friday. Inflation climbed to the highest level recorded since October 2008, the National Statistics Institute said, delivering more grim news for the battered economy. Prices were pushed up by surging fuel prices and the rising costs of tobacco, alcoholic drinks, and housing. Inflation was at 3.0 percent in January this year. Political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East has sent oil soaring to levels last seen in mid-2008 with prices climbing well above $100 a barrel in the London and New York markets. The Spanish economy slumped into recession during the second half of 2008 as the global financial meltdown compounded the collapse of the once-booming property market. The economy shrank 0.1 percent in 2010 and the unemployment rate ended the year at 20.33 percent, the highest level in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
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