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 Consumer prices in 17 countries sharing the euro last year rose 0.3
percent on the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 0.8
percent, down from 0.9 percent in November, but a tad above 0.7
percent in October.
The ECB, which wants to keep inflation below, but close to 2 percent
over the medium term, expects a prolonged period of low inflation
but sees no immediate risk of deflation.
"We were all aware that the decline in the inflation rate in
December ... first of all was expected, and it was caused by a
technical adjustment in the statistics of the services inflation in
Germany," ECB President Mario Draghi said last week.
"(This) basically produced a much flatter seasonal adjustment and it
meant that the December data came out lower than the 0.9 (percent).
But fortunately this was a one-off event, so that the January data
will not be distorted by this," he said.
Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said earlier on Thursday
consumer prices were unlikely to slow further and the current low
level is not a major threat to economic recovery.
The October inflation level was a nearly four-year low and pushed
the ECB towards a cut in its key lending key rate to a record low of
0.25 percent in November.
The monthly consumer price increase in December was led by a 0.6
percent rise both in prices of services and the highly volatile
energy costs.
Prices of food, alcohol and tobacco were up by 0.5 percent while
costs of non-energy industrial goods fell 0.3 percent when compared
with November.
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Consumer prices in Germany, Europe's largest economy, rose 0.5
percent on the month in December, but the annual inflation dropped
to 1.2 percent from 1.6 percent in November.
The annual inflation rate in Spain stood 0.3 percent for the second
month in a row in December after being flat in October.
Annual inflation in Portugal rose for the third consecutive month,
but was still standing at just 0.2 percent in December.
The fall in inflation rates is related to an overall economic
adjustment and restoring of competitiveness of Europe's southern
periphery countries, where growth collapsed during the crisis and
triggered a massive austerity push.
(Reporting by Martin Santa)
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