Euro area inflation increases to zero this April, says Eurostat

Newsroom 30/04/2015 | 14:37

Euro area annual inflation is expected to be zero percent in April 2015, up from -0.1 percent in March, according to data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Euro-area consumer prices thus ended a four-month period of declines and helped calm fears over risk of deflation.

The highest annual rates this April were reported by services (0.9 percent, compared with 1.0 percent in March) and food, alcohol & tobacco (0.9 percent, compared with 0.6 percent in March), followed by non-energy industrial goods (0.1 percent, compared with 0.0 percent in March) and energy (-5.8 percent, compared with -6.0 percent in March).

According to Bloomberg, prices stagnated this April following four months of drops after the “European Central Bank started pumping billions of euros into the bloc’s economy through its quantitative-easing program”.