Investing.com – Consumer price inflation (CPI) in the euro zone decreased more than expected in March, falling back from a four-year high and easing pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to remove policy accommodation, official preliminary data showed on Thursday.
In a report, Eurostat said consumer price inflation rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.5% in March, below expectations for an increase of 1.8% and following a final reading of a 2.0% advance in the prior month.
According to Eurostat, energy is expected to have the highest annual rate in March (7.3%, compared with 9.3% in February), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (1.8%, compared with 2.5% in February), services (1.0%, compared with 1.3% in February) and non-energy industrial goods (0.2%, stable compared with February).
Core CPI, which excludes food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco costs, increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in March from the same period a year ago, after a 0.9% gain in the prior month. Analysts had expected core inflation to ease to a 0.8% increase.
With the headline reading having fallen back below the ECB’s target of close to, but below, 2%, calls, particularly from Germany, for the euro area central bank to remove accommodative policy should be toned down.
The ECB will hold its next monetary policy meeting on April 27.
After the report, EUR/USD was at 1.0690 compared to 1.0694 ahead of the release, while EUR/GBP traded at 0.8581 compared to 0.8592 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were trading lower. The Euro Stoxx 50 lost 0.45%, Germany's DAX dropped 0.15%, France’s CAC 40 lost 0.44%, while London’s FTSE 100 traded down 0.59%.