Euro Zone Inflation Dips for 2nd Month
Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent from July, Eurostat said. Year on year inflation hit a high for the year at 2.5 percent in May and June, prompting the European Central Bank to raise interest rates several times in recent months.
The continued decline in the annual rate of inflation may make it more difficult for the ECB to present further interest rate hikes.
The ECB has raised interest rates four times since December to 3.0 percent from 2.0 percent and has signaled that it will raise rates again when its governing council next meets Oct. 5.
The slowing pace of energy price rises was the main factor behind the decline in the annual rate of inflation. Although energy prices rose 0.1 percent on the month, the annual rate of increase slowed to 8.1 percent in August from 9.5 percent in July and 11.0 percent in June.
Inflation varied across the euro area in August from 3.8 percent in Spain to 1.3 percent in Finland. Europe's largest economies are at the low end of the scale. Germany reported a drop to 1.8 percent, France to 2.1 percent and Italy was stable at 2.3 percent.
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