Downtown Amsterdam<\/p>\n
Jacobh | E+ | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Euro zone inflation stood at 2% in December, flash data from Eurostat showed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Economists polled by Reuters had expected the inflation rate to cool to 2%, in line with the European Central Bank’s (ECB) target. In November, the inflation rate stood at 2.1%<\/a>. <\/p>\n Core inflation, which excludes more volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, stood at 2.3% in the year to December, down from 2.4% in November, while the annual rate of services inflation cooled to 3.4%, compared with 3.5% in November.<\/p>\n The ECB held its key deposit facility\u00a0rate at 2% for the fourth consecutive time in December, having last cut rates in June.<\/p>\n The trim, which coincided with\u00a0euro zone inflation hitting 2%<\/a>, was part of a rate-cutting cycle that has brought rates down from 2024’s\u00a0record\u00a0high\u00a0of 4%<\/a>.<\/p>\n Top ECB board members told CNBC late last year that\u00a0the easing cycle is close to, or at its end<\/a>,\u00a0although the central bank has repeatedly said it will take a meeting-by-meeting and data dependent approach to rate setting.<\/p>\n The euro<\/a> and Stoxx 600<\/a> were unchanged on Wednesday following the data release, although the inflation rate returning to the ECB’s target could signal further rate cuts ahead.<\/p>\n “The move should please\u00a0equity markets, as it gives the ECB yet another reason to cut interest rates further in 2026. That said,\u00a0inflation has been hovering either side of the 2% level for most of last year, so today’s move is minor, but a\u00a0positive,\u00a0nonetheless,” Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar, said in emailed comments Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Central bankers walk a tightrope,\u00a0attempting\u00a0to stimulate the economy without igniting inflation. But with\u00a0inflation low and steady, they should be able to take\u00a0their foot off the brake and lean towards more\u00a0stimulus\u00a0sooner rather than later.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downtown Amsterdam Jacobh | E+ | Getty Images Euro zone inflation stood at 2% in December, flash data…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":498928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[78,24936,64,81,79,45974,266,6769,8187,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-498927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-breaking-news-economy","9":"tag-breaking-news-europe","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-business-news","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-eur-usd","14":"tag-inflation","15":"tag-prices","16":"tag-stoxx-600","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115853918806818052","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}