Euro Area inflation eases less than forecast, EUR/USD flat

Euro Area’s annual consumer inflation rate slowed to 2.6% in February from 2.8% in January, the preliminary data by Eurostat showed.

Market consensus had pointed to a larger drop to 2.5%.

February’s rate has been the lowest in three months, but it still remained above the European Central Bank’s inflation objective of 2%.

Last month, energy prices registered a 3.7% YoY decline, compared with a 6.1% drop in January.

Meanwhile, price increases moderated for services (3.9% YoY versus 4.0% YoY in January), food, alcohol & tobacco (4.0% YoY versus 5.6% YoY) and non-energy industrial goods (1.6% YoY versus 2.0% YoY in January).

Annual core CPI inflation, which excludes volatile categories such as food and energy, slowed for the seventh consecutive month to 3.1% in February from 3.3% in January. It has been the lowest core inflation rate since March 2022.

In month-over-month terms, consumer prices in the Euro Area rose 0.6% in February, after a 0.4% decrease in the prior month.

The EUR/USD currency pair was last inching up 0.04% on the day to trade at 1.0809.