Frankfurt - (AFP) - European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Monday that she would be "surprised" if inflation had actually peaked in the euro zone , indicating that the current monetary difficulties will continue.

The rise in prices peaked in October at 10.6 percent, and it was very high by about 5 percent if we exclude energy and food prices.

“I would like to see that inflation peaked in October but I think there is a lot of uncertainty,” said the European Central Bank President during a hearing before the European Parliament.

And she stressed that the state of uncertainty is related in particular to "the repercussions of the high cost of energy on retail prices."

In the face of soaring inflation in the wake of the war in Ukraine, the European Central Bank has raised interest rates by 2% since July, which it has never done in its history in such a sudden way.

Rates are due to be raised again in December at the last meeting of the year, but likely on a smaller scale than the 0.75% increases in September and October, observers say.

Lagarde believes that inflation will decline in the long term thanks to the adopted monetary policy and the gradual decline in supply bottlenecks.

She said that now "the best economists (within the ECB)" see a risk of "rising" inflation. In this context, she added, interest rates "are and will remain the main tool for combating inflation."

In the US the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates earlier and more aggressively and now believes that a slower pace of rate hikes may "soon be an appropriate move".