Investing.com – Consumer price inflation (CPI) in the euro zone spiked to more than a three-year high in December, though price pressures remained far below the European Central Bank’s (ECB) 2% target, official preliminary data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, Eurostat said consumer price inflation rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.1% in December compared to forecasts for an increase of 1.0% and following a final reading of a 0.6% advance in the prior month.
According to Eurostat, energy prices drove inflation higher, followed by services, and food, alcohol & tobacco.
Core CPI, which excludes food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco costs, unexpectedly increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.9% in December. Analysts had expected core inflation to remain stable at its prior 0.8% increase.
Despite the uptick in the headline number, that reached its highest level since September 2013, inflation continues to remain far below the ECB’s 2%.
The ECB will hold its next monetary policy meeting on January 19 and is widely expected leave interest rates and quantitative easing measures untouched.
After the report, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0432 compared to 1.0440 ahead of the release, while EUR/GBP traded at 0.8499 compared to 0.8502 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were trading mostly flat with mixed signs. The Euro Stoxx 50 inched up 0.04%, Germany's DAX lost 0.17%, France’s CAC 40 dipped 0.01%, while London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.05%.