European Annual Inflation Reached 1.8% in January

January 31, 2017 Share Print 0

Euro-area inflation accelerated more than forecast to effectively reach the European Central Bank’s goal, which may intensify a debate among policy makers about their long-running stimulus programs.

The 1.8 percent annual increase in consumer prices in January was the fastest since early 2013 and beat the 1.5 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. That’s in line with the ECB goal of just below 2 percent, though the less-volatile core rate remains at just half that level.

While largely driven by higher oil prices, the inflation pickup is feeding into questions about the appropriate degree of monetary stimulus for the 19-nation currency bloc. ECB President Mario Draghi has repeatedly stressed that underlying price pressures are still weak and he wants certainty that the acceleration will prove durable, though German policy makers have started to push for a discussion about winding down quantitative easing.

via Bloomberg

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.