PARIS (Reuters) – Inflation in the euro zone was slightly higher in January than initially estimated and underlying price pressures still show no signs of moderating, final figures released by Eurostat on Thursday showed.
The consumer price index calculated to European standards shows an increase of 8.6% on an annual basis, as expected on average by economists polled by Reuters, against +8.5% in the first estimate, when the official figures for Germany were not included due to technical issues.
The rise in prices was 9.2% over one year in December.
Over one month, prices fell by 0.2%, against -0.4% initially estimated at the beginning of the month.
Eurostat specifies that the evolution of the prices of food, alcohol and tobacco contributed to the overall increase in the index by 2.94 percentage points over one year, that of energy by of 2.17 points and that of the prices of services by 1.80 points.
Compared to January 2022, the rise in energy prices in the 20 countries that adopted the single currency slowed to 18.9% while that of food, alcohol and tobacco accelerated to 14 .1% and that of industrial goods excluding energy at 6.7%.
Inflation in services stood at 4.4%, revised from 4.2%.
The inflation rate excluding energy and unprocessed food, the most watched by the European Central Bank (ECB), reached 7.1%, against 7.0% in the first estimate and after 6.9% a month earlier .
An even narrower measure, which further excludes alcohol and tobacco, is at 5.3%. The first estimate had given it up 5.2%.
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(Laetitia Volga, editing by Kate Entringer)
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