Investing.com – Consumer price inflation (CPI) in the euro zone eased slightly in January, diminishing pressure on the European Central Bank to move forward with further removal of monetary accommodation, official preliminary data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, Eurostat said consumer price inflation rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.3% in January, in line with expectations and compared to a 1.4% advance in the prior month.
According to Eurostat, and looking at the main components of euro area inflation, energy is expected to have the highest annual rate in January (2.1%, compared with 2.9% in December), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (1.9%, compared with 2.1% in December), services (1.2%, stable compared with December) and non-energy industrial goods (0.6%, compared with 0.5% in December).
Core CPI, which excludes food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco costs, increased by a seasonally adjusted 1.0% in January from the same period a year ago. That was also in line with forecasts and came after a 0.9% rise in December.
The European Central Bank’s inflation target is officially close to, but below, 2.0% and will make its next monetary policy decision on March 8.
Given strong growth in the euro area, markets are paying close attention to whether the ECB may announce an end to its asset purchase program, currently set to expire in Sepetember.
After the report, which was releases simultaneously with euro zone unemployment for December, EUR/USD was at 1.2452 compared to 1.2448 ahead of the release, while EUR/GBP traded at 0.8807 compared to 0.8806 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were trading mostly higher. The Euro Stoxx 50 edged forward 0.07%, Germany's DAX advanced 0.32%, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.23%, while London’s FTSE 100 traded up 0.12%.