Inflation in the euro zone slowed to 1.2% in February, the EU's official statistics agency said today, well off the European Central Bank's 2% target.
The figure, which was in line with a forecast by analysts at data company Factset, will make it less likely that the ECB will turn off its massive stimulus programme in the near future.
The Frankfurt-based ECB has announced it was starting to wind down the massive support it has given the 19-member currency zone to boost inflation and help Europe through the crises of recent years.
Over that period, it has set interest rates at historic lows, offered cheap loans to banks and bought tens of billions of euros per month in bonds in a bid to pump easy cash to businesses and households.
Policymakers hoped the moves would stoke growth and power inflation towards their target of just below 2.0 percent.
But with euro zone inflation still stubbornly low, stymied by depressed wages, bank chief Mario Draghi has signalled to investors the era of cheap money was not over yet.
Any lasting return of target-level inflation will be fundamentally dependent on ample monetary support by the ECB, Draghi told MEPs earlier this week.
