Eurozone Inflation Ticks Down in October

The EU statistics agency Eurostat reported today that inflation in the eurozone eased due to a deceleration in the growth of energy prices.

The agency’s flash estimate of consumer inflation in the eurozone countries was 2.5% year-on-year, down from 2.6% in September. Still that was above the European Central Bank target of less than 2%.

The biggest inflation contributor was energy. Prices increased 7.8% year-on-year in October. However, that was more slowly than in September, when they rose 9.1% year-on-year. The cost of food, alcohol and tobacco rose 3.2% year-on-year, compared with 2.9% the month before.

Part of the reason inflation pressures in the eurozone are low is because unemployment is a record levels. Eurostat reported separately that the unemployment rate in the eurzone was 11.6% in September, the highest level since 1995.

The agency said 18.49 million people were without jobs, and increase of 146,000 from the month before.

In order to support the slowing economy, the European Central Bank is expected to cut interest rates again before the end of the year from the current record low of 0.75%. The region likely sank into a recession in the third quarter.

The Eurostat press release is available here.