Euro Area inflation surprisingly slows to 2.4% in March

Euro Area’s annual consumer inflation slowed to 2.4% in March, while matching November’s 28-month low, from 2.6% in February, the preliminary data by Eurostat showed.

Market consensus had pointed to CPI inflation rate of 2.6%.

Last month, energy prices registered a 1.8% YoY decline, compared with a 3.7% drop in February.

Meanwhile, price increases moderated for food, alcohol & tobacco (2.7% YoY versus 3.9% YoY in February) and non-energy industrial goods (1.1% YoY versus 1.6% YoY in February).

Services inflation remained stable at 4% in March.

Annual core CPI inflation, which excludes volatile categories such as food and energy, slowed for the 8th consecutive month to 2.9% in March from 3.1% in February. It has been the lowest core inflation rate since February 2022.

In month-over-month terms, consumer prices in the Euro Area rose 0.8% in March, after another 0.6% increase in the prior month.

The Euro was last 0.04% firmer against the US Dollar on Wednesday, with the EUR/USD currency pair trading at 1.0773.

The major Forex pair has rebounded from yesterday’s seven-week low of 1.0725.