Euro zone inflation remained at a record low of 0.6% year-on-year in April, a first estimate shows today.
But unemployment continued to climb quickly amid the worst European recession since World War Two.
Data from the European Union's statistics office showed consumer inflation in the euro zone remained unchanged from March levels, as expected by markets.
The European Central Bank, which meets on interest rates on May 7, wants inflation to be just below 2% and has signalled it will cut its main refinancing rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 1%.
It is also likely to announce other ways of monetary policy easing, such as lengthening the maturity of its refinancing operations to 12 months from six or buying corporate or bank bonds, economists said.
Eurostat also said euro zone unemployment rose to 8.9% in March from an upwardly revised 8.7% in February, taking the number of people without jobs to 14.158 million, up 419,000 from the previous month.
The euro zone's biggest economy, Germany, saw unemployment increase to 7.6% of the workforce in March from 7.4% in February, while joblessness in France rose to 8.8% from 8.6%.
Spain saw the steepest jump in unemployment, to 17.4% from 16.5%, with Ireland not far behind with a rise to 10.4% from 10%.
