Buyers buy fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs in an external product market under green stripes in Regensburg, Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany, April 19, 2025.
Michael Nguyen / Nurphoto via Getty Images
The inflation of the euro zone was unchanged at 2.2% in April, the missing expectations for a lower movement, the flash data from the Eurostat Statistics Agency showed on Friday.
The economists interviewed by Reuters expected the reading to be 2.1% in April, against 2.2% of March while inflation was strengthened towards the 2% target of the European Central Bank.
Basic inflation, which excludes the more volatile prices of food, energy, alcohol and tobacco, accelerated 2.7% compared to 2.4% of March. The impression of inflation of closely watched services also resumed, arriving at 3.9% compared to the reading of 3.5% previous.
Several major economies in the euro zone have already published their latest inflation figures, which are harmonized for comparability through the block. Germany The Statistics Office said on Wednesday that it expects consumer prices to increase by 2.2% in April, below reading the previous month but slightly higher than expected. In the meantime French Harmonized inflation came at 0.8%, also slightly in front expectations.
“We are heading towards our (inflation) objective during 2025, so that the disinflationary process is so on the right track that we are in the process of completion,” said ECB, Christine Lagarde, in CNBC last week.
Lagarde and other political decision -makers Last week warned that the inflation table was less clear in the medium term, with factors such as countermeasures of potential European reprisals against American prices and budgetary changes such as the main set of German infrastructure.
Lagarde said that the ECB would be “dependent to the extreme” data, when making interest rate decisions. The central bank reduced interest rates for the last time last month, taking its key rate – the rate of deposit facilities – to 2.25%, down compared to the summits of 4% in mid -2023.
Data published earlier this week indicated that the Economy of the euro zone This could take steam, the gross domestic product of the block increasing by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2025, according to a preliminary reading. This was greater than the 0.2% forecast and followed a revised growth of 0.2% in the last quarter of 2024.
Growth should however slow down in the coming months due to the fallout from the global price.
This is a press article, please come back for updates.
