Thousands in Germany had to sleep overnight on trains _ either stuck by the wild weather or due to a lack of hotel rooms.Southeastern Denmark was also badly hit, and heavy snowfalls and icy winds severely hampered road and rail traffic. The Danish army used tracked armored personnel womens timberland boots carriers to help ambulances and other emergency vehicles cut their way through mounds of snow.A deep freeze gripped Sweden, with the lowest temperatures overnight Thursday measuring minus 29.6 Celsius (minus 85.3 Fahrenheit) in Lillhardal in the center of the country.The unusual weather was being caused by high pressure over Greenland and Scandinavia and low pressure in the Baltic States, which generate cold wind and snowfalls.Britain has been one of the worst-hit countries with its earliest widespread snowfall in 17 years.
Finance ministers of eurozone countries downplayed inflation risk in the European single currency club on Monday, despite the recent rises due to higher oil prices.”Inflation in the euro area has been gradually moving up in the last few months, in particular because of the rise of the prices of oil, but underlining inflation pressures in the euro area have remained weak,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker told reporters after chairing a monthly meeting of eurozone black timberland boots finance ministers.Official figures showed annual inflation in the 17-nation euro zone increased to 2.4 percent in January, up from 2.2 percent in December, prompting speculation that the European Central Bank ( ECB) may raise its benchmark interest rate earlier than previously anticipated.The Frankfurt-based ECB prefers to keep the eurozone inflation close but below 2 percent to maintain price stability.The recent rises of inflation pressure in the 17-nation euro zone were mainly due to higher oil prices on the world markets.
Although inflation in the euro zone was expected to remain high in the next months, it was unlikely that the ECB would raise its rate soon.Analysts warned rising inflation would pose a policy dilemma for the ECB since any decision to raise interest rate to contain inflation would put economic recovery at risk when the euro zone is still struggling with the sovereign debt crisis.But eurozone finance ministers sounded optimistic about the economic situation timberland 6 inch boots sale in the euro zone.”We considered that economic recovery is becoming more and more vigorous, and more and more self-reliant,” Juncker said, adding the outlook remained encouraging.Meanwhile, he warned that sovereign debt market was still disturbing, saying the eurozone countries were working on a comprehensive package to prevent the debt crisis from spreading further to Portugal and Spain.