Headline inflation in the euro area moderated by nearly two-tenths in February on a year-over-year basis, reaching 2.6%. The core rate, which excludes volatile items such as energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco, to provide a clearer measure of long-term inflation trends, fell to 3.1% from 3.3%, its lowest level in two years, according to data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The increase in services prices contributed the most to the euro area\u2019s annual inflation rate, surpassing the increases in categories such as food, energy, alcohol, tobacco, and non-energy industrial goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The price of services continued to rise at 4%, while the cost of non-energy industrial goods remained at 1.6%. Energy costs fell by 3.7%, a smaller decline compared to the 6.1% drop in the first month of the year. Food price inflation slowed to 2.1%, a significant decrease from the 6.9% increase in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inflation in the European Union as a whole was 2.8% in February, down from 3.1% in January<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Annual inflation rates decreased in 20 member states, were stable in five, and rose in two. The lowest annual rates were recorded in Denmark, Latvia (both at 0.6%) and Italy (0.8%). In contrast, the highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (7.1%), Croatia (4.8%) and Estonia (4.4%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the major economies of the European continent, inflation fell by six-tenths in Spain to 2.9%, stood at 2.7% in Germany, 3.2% in France and 0.9% in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its latest estimates, the European Central Bank (ECB) lowered its inflation forecasts, mainly for this year, due to a lower contribution from energy prices. For 2024, the ECB now forecasts HICP inflation at 2.3%, a reduction of four-tenths from its previous forecast, and anticipates a rate of 2% in 2025, down by one-tenth from its earlier projection. This would be four-tenths lower for this year and one-tenth lower for next year. The figure for 2026 remains unchanged at 1.9%. Similarly, core inflation is now forecast at 2.6% for 2024, 2.1% for 2025, and 2% for 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Headline inflation in the euro area moderated by nearly two-tenths in February on a year-over-year basis, reaching 2.6%. The core rate, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2936,2935],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-currencies","category-markets"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n