Eurozone Inflation Falls to 0.3%

The eurozone’s inflation rate fell to 0.3% in November, from 0.4% in October, suggesting that deflation remains a threat for the 18-nation bloc.

Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, said that the rate was pulled down by lower energy prices.

The European Central Bank considers anything below 1% to be in its deflation “danger zone”.

The eurozone’s low inflation is blamed for undermining growth, which has prompted ECB stimulus measures.

A fear among policymakers is that if deflation takes hold, consumers and companies will delay purchases in the hope prices will fall further.

Consumer inflation has not been at the ECB’s target level of close to, but below 2% since the start of 2013 and has been falling since a 3% peak in late 2011.

Eurostat said energy prices fell 2.5% from October and by 1.1% on an annual basis. Core inflation, stripping out energy and food prices, was 0.7%, unchanged from October.

Earlier this week, Germany’s inflation reading fell to its lowest for nearly five years.

via BBC

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.