Eurozone inflation holds steady in December

Eurozone consumer prices rose less than expected in December, figures released by Eurostat showed on Tuesday.

Consumer prices rose 0.2% year-on-year compared with expectations for a 0.3% increase and unchanged from November, piling pressure on the European Central Bank to do more to bring inflation back to target.

Core CPI, meanwhile, was steady at 0.9% in December.

“The soft inflation print increases the pressure on the ECB next week, and also increases the risk of additional easing,” said Pantheon Macroeconomics.

“But we think the central bank will refrain from adding stimulus, opting to wait for a bit more data in Q1 before potentially acting. Another disappointment in the January inflation data likely would see the central bank adding to its stimulus.”