BERLIN: German inflation dipped slightly in August, official data showed Wednesday, but remained at a level three times higher than the European Central Bank’s target rate.

The annual inflation rate in Europe’s biggest economy eased to 6.1 percent, down from 6.2 percent in July, according to preliminary data from the federal statistics office Destatis.

The data was also a touch above the 6.0 percent forecast by analysts polled by financial data company FactSet.

Inflation projected to be at 28.6% in August, says brokerage house

Soaring energy prices in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine had pushed up consumer prices in Germany in the last months.

While power prices have since fallen from their peaks, higher service costs and food prices were feeding into inflation.

The ECB has raised interest rates to their highest level since May 2001 to bring down the red-hot inflation, though its president Christine Lagarde has indicated that the aggressive rate-hiking campaign could be paused.

But the stubbornly high consumer prices in Europe’s biggest economy, as well as trends elsewhere in the single-currency bloc could prove to be a conundrum for the central bankers at their next meeting in mid-September.

Noting that the drop in Germany’s inflation was “somewhat smaller than expected,” LBBW bank analyst Jens-Oliver Niklasch said the “data suggests that we will be preoccupied with the problem of inflation for some time”.

Separately on Wednesday, another major EU economy, Spain, said consumer prices showed an uptick again in August.

Inflation in the southern European nation reached 2.6 percent for the month, slightly higher than the 2.3 percent recorded for July.