a man walks past a fruit and vegetable shop at brixton market amid the spread of the coronavirus disease covid19 in london britain september 27 2020 reuterssimon dawson frankfurt june 9 reuters  the european central bank raised its inflation projections once again on thursday but cut its growth outlook as the conflict in ukraine continues to weigh on confidence consumption and investment the ecb now sees inflation over its 2 target throughout its projection horizon accepting that rapid price growth is not nearly as temporary as it had forecast for the past year the ecb failed to predict the recent inflation surge and its projections have been raised sharply quarter after quarter leading to criticism of the banks forecasting methods and a large internal study on how they got the outlook so wrong inflation is seen averaging 68 this year well above the 51 predicted in march while it is seen at 35 in 2023 and 21 in 2024 inflation rose over 8 last month and could peak in the third quarter before a slow retreat skyhigh energy prices are the key reason for the inflation surge but food prices are also rising quickly and underlying price growth which filters out volatile food and fuel prices is also well above 2 now expensive food and energy will be a drag on growth holding back an economy which had just recovered from a deep pandemicinduced recession the following are the ecbs quarterly growth and inflation projections through 2024 figures in brackets are previous forecasts from march