Investing.com – Preliminary consumer price inflation in the euro zone in April moved back to negative territory falling more than expected, underlining concerns over the threat of deflation in the region, official preliminary data showed on Thursday.
In a report, Eurostat said consumer price inflation fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.2% this month, worse than expectations for a 0.1% decline, and following a final reading of 0.0% in March.
Core CPI, which excludes food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco costs increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.8% in April, below forecasts for 0.9% and down from 1.0% a month earlier.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi rolled out fresh stimulus measures earlier in March, including increased asset buying and a deeper cut to deposit rates, in an effort to spur economic activity and boost sluggish inflation.
After the report, which was released simultaneous with the first quarter gross domestic product for the region, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1382 from around 1.1385 ahead of the release of the data, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7800 from 0.7796 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were broadly lower. The EURO STOXX 50 dropped 1.27%, Germany's DAX fell 1.07%, France’s CAC 40 lost 1.39%, while London’s FTSE 100 shed 0.67%.