Official figures show that inflation in the euro zone held steady in February at 1.8%. The report, from the EU's Eurostat data agency, confirmed a previous estimate.
The rate was spot on economists' forecasts and was in line with the European Central Bank's preferred level of close to but less than 2%.
The stability of euro zone inflation since the beginning of the year has confounded many economists and politicians' expectations for a surge after Germany raised VAT by three percentage points in January.
