Underlying price pressures in the euro zone eased in February, an index compiled by the Economic Cycle Research Institute showed this morning.
ECRI, which designs indices aimed at predicting business cycles in leading economies, said its Eurozone Future Inflation Gauge (EZFIG) fell to 92.0 in February from a downwardly revised 92.2 in January.
"Euro zone inflation pressures are ebbing again," ECRI said."Inflation is likely to stay subdued for now."
The gauge aims to anticipate cyclical swings in the region's inflation rate and changes in official interest rate policy by measuring underlying inflationary pressures, rather than actual inflation rates. It is similar to ECRI's inflation indices for the United States, Britain and Japan.
The gauge for Germany dropped to 75.5 in February from 76.0 in January.
The Spanish index slipped to 118.7 from a downwardly revised 118.9 in January, while the Italian index stayed at 97.7.
ECRI said French inflation pressures remain in a gentle uptrend which pushed up the French gauge to 101.5 from a downwardly revised 101.4 in January.
The euro zone gauge uses a weighted average of ECRI's indices for Germany, France, Italy and Spain, whose components include measurements of bond yields, loans to individuals and businesses, raw material prices, employment and unemployment, money supply and business activity.