Investing.com - Inflation in the euro zone slowed again in January according to a flash estimate released on Friday, hitting an eight-month low as the region's economy slowed under the influence of the U.S.-China trade war and the approach of Brexit.
The bloc’s statistics agency Eurostat said its consumer price index rose 1.4% in January from the same month a year earlier, down from 1.6% in December. The reading was in line with expectations.
Oil prices, which fell sharply in the last quarter of the year, have been largely responsible for the decline in the headline inflation rate. Energy cost inflation was running over at over 10% in October, but slowed to only 2.6% year-on-year in January, Eurostat said.
Core inflation, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, rose to an annual rate of 1.1% from 1.0% in the previous month.
The European Central Bank targets a headline inflation rate of close to, but just below 2%. It warned last week that the downside risks to the economy had increased. Some economists are now forecasting that the ECB will be forced to take fresh measures to stimulate the economy later this year, despite ending its net purchases of bonds at the end of 2018.