Investing.com - Euro zone inflation eased in line with expectations in December, according to flash data released by Eurostat on Friday
The European Union's statistics office said the consumer price index rose at an annual rate of 1.4% in December, from 1.5% in November.
The rates were in line with expectations but below the ECB target inflation rate of 2%, supporting the central bank’s approach to gradually increasing interest rates.
Core inflation, which excludes energy and food prices and is closely watched by the ECB, rose by an annualized 0.9%, the same as last month. Analysts had expected core inflation to rise to 1.0%.
Meanwhile, the producer price index (PPI) rose to 0.6% in November from 0.4% the prior month, and more than the 0.3% expected by economists. The PPI rose by an annualized 2.8% in November compared to 2.5% previously. Analysts had expected the index to stay flat at 2.5%.
After the report, EUR/USD was trading at 1.2052 compared to 1.2044 prior.