A man pushes his basket filled with restoration stores and walks in front of a very canned vegetable alley with “Down Price” labels in a supermarket in Auchan in Guilherand Granges, France, March 8, 2025.
Nicolas Guyonnet | AFP | Getty images
The annual inflation of the euro zone fell as expected at 2.2% in March, according to flash data from the Eurostat Statistics Agency published on Tuesday.
Tuesday's printing is just below the final reading of 2.3% of February.
The so-called basic inflation, which excludes the more volatile prices from food, energy, alcohol and tobacco, fell to 2.4% in March, compared to 2.6% in February. The inflation print of closely watched services, which had long been sticky around the 4% mark, also fell to 3.4% in March, against 3.7% in the previous month.
Recent preliminary data has shown that March inflation is lower than that of forecasts in several major economies in the euro zone. Inflation last month reached 2.3% Germany and fell to 2.2% in Spainwhile remaining unchanged at 0.9% France.
The figures, which are harmonized in the euro zone for comparability, increased expectations for an additional interest rate of 25 base points of the European Central Bank at its next meeting on April 17. The markets estimated on Tuesday about 80% reduction after the publication of data on the inflation of the euro zone, according to LSEG data.
The relaxation of the inflation of services has particularly increased the chances of a drop in interest rates in the ECB, said on Tuesday in a note from Jack Allen-Reynolds, head of the euro-economic zone of the euro zone.
“We believe that this decrease, as well as solid evidence that it will still fall … and a continuous weakness of the latest activity surveys, will be enough to encourage the ECB to reduce interest rates by 25 bp later this month,” he noted.
The European Union should be slapped with prices due in force later this week of the US administration of Donald Trump – including a 25% levy on cars.
Although the exact impact of prices and reprisal measures remains uncertain, many economists have warned for months that their effect could be inflationary.
Tuesday, separately, data also showed that the unemployment rate seasonally adjusted in the euro zone in February reached 6.1%, continuing on its recent downward trend. The economists interviewed by Reuters expected that it remains unchanged at 6.2%.
This is a press article, please come back for updates.
