Euro zone consumer price growth slowed slightly in January but the core measure closely watched by the European Central Bank edged higher for the first time in months.
This is according to the latest data from the European Union's statistics office Eurostat today.
Eurostat said consumer prices in the euro zone fell 0.9% month-on-month in January for a 1.3% year-on-year increase, confirming its earlier estimates and market expectations.
But unprocessed food prices rose 0.7% month-on-month for a 1.1% annual increase and energy prices jumped 1.8% in January for a 2.2% annual gain.
Without these two highly volatile components - or what the ECB calls "core inflation" and watches in monetary policy decisions - prices fell 1.3% month-on-month and rose 1.2% year on year, accelerating from 1.1% in the previous three months.
An even broader measure of core inflation watched by some market economists, which in addition excludes alcohol and tobacco prices that can change with government hikes of excise tax, also increased to 1% year-on-year in January from 0.9% in the previous three months.
The ECB has been buying billions of euros of euro zone government bonds on the market to inject cash into the banking system and trigger greater credit to the economy to boost inflation, which it wants below, but close to 2%.
