Annual inflation in the Eurozone fell below 2% for the first time in three years, the European statistics agency Eurostat said on Thursday, hours before a European Central Bank meeting where it is expected to announce a consecutive interest rate cut.
Inflation has cooled sharply since last year, when inflation was at 4.3% in the month of September, Eurostat said. Headline price rises in the euro currency area were at 1.7% in September 2024, below the expected 1.8% which Eurostat had estimated earlier in the month. That further paved the way for the ECB to cut interest rates, as inflation is now below the ECB’s targeted 2%.
“Victory against inflation is in sight,” French central bank governor and member of ECB governing council Francois Villeroy de Galhau said last week. Speaking on Thursday’s ECB meeting, he had said, that “a cut is very likely. It will not be the last.”
Also read:Spectre of low inflation returns to haunt Eurozone policymakers
Prices for services grew the most at 1.76%, followed by food, alcohol and tobacco which grew at 0.47%. The prices for energy dropped by 0.6%.
Sharper drop in Luxembourg
The cooling of prices was even more pronounced in Luxembourg with inflation falling below 1%. At 0.8% the Grand Duchy witnessed among the lowest annual rates of inflation in Europe for the month of September.
Luxembourg’s own statistics agency, however, pegged the annual inflation rate a bit higher at 1.3% for the month of September. The estimates of the two agencies sometimes vary because of key differences in methodology.
Only Ireland (0.0%), Lithuania (0.4%), Slovenia and Italy (both 0.7%) had inflation rates lower than Luxembourg, according to Eurostat.
The highest annual inflation rates were recorded in Romania (4.8%), Belgium (4.3%) and Poland (4.2%).
Source link : https://www.luxtimes.lu/businessandfinance/eurozone-inflation-falls-below-2-with-ecb-expected-to-cut-rates/23155641.html
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Publish date : 2024-10-17 13:10:00
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