German annual inflation turned negative in February, hitting the lowest level in more than a year, data showed today.
The figures are a further sign that price pressures in the euro zone weakened more than expected ahead of a Eurpean Central Bank meeting next month.
On a non-harmonised basis, German annual inflation slowed to 0% in February from 0.5% in January.
A breakdown of the non-harmonised data showed a steep drop in energy prices was the main drag on the headline figure, while prices for food and services rose less sharply than a month ago.
The statistics office said it would publish final consumer price data for February on March 11.
The data came after French inflation also unexpectedly dropped below zero on slumping energy prices in February, giving proponents of further monetary policy easing more ammunition for a pivotal meeting of the ECB in March.
German prices, harmonised to compare with other European countries (HICP), fell by 0.2% on the year after having risen by 0.4% in January, preliminary data from the Federal Statistics Office showed.
The reading, well below the European Central Bank's target for the whole euro zone of just below 2%, came in below the Reuters consensus forecast for prices to remain unchanged.
It was also the weakest reading since January 2015 when harmonised annual consumer prices inched down 0.4%.
For the euro zone, economists polled by Reuters expect the February inflation rate, due out on Monday, to have fallen to 0% from 0.3% in January.
But analysts said the surprisingly weak inflation data from Germany, France and also Spain now pointed to an even weaker euro zone reading.
They said that all in all, today's data suggest that the euro zone headline rate will fall below zero in February, they added.
The ECB is widely expected to cut its deposit rate by 10 basis points to -0.4% on March 10 and economists polled by Reuters say the size of the bond-buying scheme could be extended by €10-30 billion a month. Its monthly asset purchases are currently at €60 billion.
