Investing.com - Inflation in the euro zone slowed in August, although the reading was unlikely to change the European Central Bank’s plan to wind up its asset purchase program this year.
The bloc’s statistics agency Eurostat said its consumer price index rose 2.0% in August from the same month a year earlier.
Analysts expected no change to July’s reading of 2.1%.
Core, or underlying inflation, which strips out volatile items such as energy and food, rose at an annual rate of 1.0%, down from 1.1% in the previous month.
The ECB targets inflation of close to, but just under, 2%.
The ECB is expected to conclude its massive bond purchasing stimulus program by the end of the year and to keep euro zone interest rates on hold through the summer of 2019.
ECB President Mario Draghi has reiterated that the bank needs to be “patient, persistent and prudent” in its policy to ensure that inflation remains on a sustained adjustment path.
At the same time, another report showed that the unemployment rate in the euro zone 8.2% in July.