Zurich (MaceNews) – Consumer inflation in the Euro-area rose 0.9% in January from a year ago, according to final harmonized (HICP) figures released by Eurostat Tuesday.
The increase, which confirmed the preliminary result released earlier this month, was led by services and non-energy industrial goods and matched the median of an Econoday survey of economists’ forecasts.
January’s increase was in sharp contrast to the 0.3% decline posted in December, although below the 1.4% increase in January of last year. On the month, consumer prices rose 0.2%.
Although energy prices rose 3.8% from a month ago, they fell 4.2% versus a year ago in January, subtracting 0.68 percentage points from the overall result. Excluding energy, consumer prices were up 1.5% year-on-year, according to Eurostat.
For the larger European Union, January consumer prices were up 1.2% on the year and 0.3% higher than a month ago.
Eurostat will release its flash estimate for February inflation March 2 at 11:00am Central European Time.