Euro Area inflation decelerates more than forecast to 2-year low

The annual inflation rate in the Euro Area has decelerated to 4.3% in September, preliminary data by Eurostat showed on Friday, from 5.2% in August.

It has been the lowest inflation rate since October 2021 and it also came below the market consensus of 4.5%.

Prices rose at a slower rate for services (4.7%), non-energy industrial goods (4.2%) and food, alcohol & tobacco (8.8%) in September.

At the same time, energy cost deflation deepened (-4.7% in September versus -3.3% in August).

The Euro Area’s annual core inflation rate, which does not take into account volatile categories such as food and energy, also decelerated to 4.5% in September. The latter has been the lowest core inflation since August 2022.

In other macroeconomic news, Germany’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained steady at 5.7% for a third successive month in September. It has been the highest rate since June 2021.

The number of unemployed persons rose by 10,000 to a total of 2.642 million in September alone.

In the 12 months through September, the number of unemployed individuals increased notably – by 140,000.

The Euro extended a rebound from a 38-week low of 1.0488 against the US Dollar on Friday, with the EUR/USD currency pair last trading at 1.0608, while gaining 0.40% on the day.

However, the major currency pair looked set to register a 2.17% loss for the month of September.