Euro zone inflation revised up to 0.2% last month

Euro zone inflation was revised up to 0.2 per cent in November, rising slightly more than expected mostly because of a slowdown in the decline of energy prices, the EU statistics agency said on Wednesday.

Eurostat previously estimated inflation at 0.1 per cent last month in the 19 countries sharing the euro. The monthly consumer price change was -0.1 per cent, slightly higher than the expected -0.2 per cent.

The revision came because the inflation rate for unprocessed food and for services both ticked up by 0.1 percentage point.

The main factor behind the modest increase in inflation as a whole was the lessening influence of weak energy prices. They were down 7.3 per cent year-on-year in November after falling 8.5 per cent in October. Month-on-month they were unchanged.

Core inflation - which excludes the most volatile components of unprocessed food and energy - was lower than in October, at 0.9 per cent year-on-year, in line with the flash estimate, and was minus 0.2 per cent on a monthly basis.

Despite the small rise in inflation, euro area prices remain subdued, keeping pressure high on the European Central Bank that has unveiled new policy measures to fight low inflation on December 3rd.

The greatest price increase was for unprocessed food which rose 2.7 per cent, albeit compared to a 3.2 per cent rise in October. Inflation in the services sector, the biggest of the euro zone economy, was 1.2 per cent in November, slightly lower than the 1.3 per cent rise recorded in October.

Reuters