Eurozone inflation edged up in September buoyed by energy costs, official data showed on Wednesday, reinforcing expectations the European Central Bank will not make further interest rate cuts this year.
Inflation rose to 2.2% last month, from 2% in August, the EU’s statistics agency said, above the ECB’s 2% target.
The figure was in line with predictions by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, but economists for FactSet had expected inflation to rise to 2.3%.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, was also unchanged at 2.3%, as economists for both Bloomberg and FactSet had forecast.
It remained stable despite services price rises accelerating to 3.2% in September, from 3.1% in August.
Energy costs, however, fell by 0.4% in September – a significantly smaller decline than the 2.0% recorded in August, Eurostat data showed.
Food, alcohol, and tobacco price rises eased to 3.0% in September, from 3.2% the previous month.
The September figure will cement the ECB’s plans for interest rates, said Riccardo Marcelli Fabiani, senior economist at Oxford Economics.
“Only a strong surprise in inflation could spur a cut this year,” he said.
Inflation in Germany and France, the EU’s biggest economies, also accelerated in September to 2.4% and 1.1% respectively, the agency said.
(vib)