The annual inflation rate in the euro zone fell in December for the second consecutive month, to 9.2%, from 10.1% in November, thanks to the continuation of the calm in energy prices, Eurostat announced on Friday. .
The rise in consumer prices fell below the symbolic bar of 10% for the first time since October, when it had reached a record, at 10.6%, after a year and a half of uninterrupted rise. The ebb is stronger than forecast by analysts at Bloomberg and Factset, who had forecast inflation of 9.5% and 9.7%, respectively, in December.
A drop of almost 10 points only for the energy sector
The slowdown in price increases only affects the energy sector (electricity, gas, oil, etc.). This component is still the one that registered the highest annual rate of price increase in December, but fell sharply to 25.7%, after 34.9% in November, according to the European statistics office.
Food prices (including alcohol and tobacco) continue to skyrocket, with an annual increase of 13.8%, compared to 13.6% in the previous month. The rise in the prices of industrial goods also continued to sharpen, at 6.4% (+0.3 pp. compared to November), as well as that of services, at 4.4% (+0.2 pp.).
Among the 19 countries in the euro zone -Croatia became the 20th country to join the single currency in January-, the lowest inflation rate was registered by Spain in December, with 5.6%, ahead of Luxembourg ( 6.2%) and France (6.7%). . Consumer price inflation reached 9.6% in Germany and 12.3% in Italy. The highest rates were in the Baltic countries, Latvia (20.7%), Lithuania (20%) and Estonia (17.5%), according to Eurostat harmonized data.
Source: BFM TV
