Eurozone annual January inflation comes above forecast

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) – The euro area's annual consumer inflation rate hit a seven-month low of 8.6% in January, above flash estimate, according to final data released on Thursday.

The figure decreased from 9.2% in December 2022, but was well above 5.2% in January 2022, showed Eurostat data.

"In January, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from food, alcohol and tobacco (up 2.94 percentage points), followed by energy (2.17 percentage points), services (1.80 percentage points) and non-energy industrial goods (1.73 percentage points)," read a statement.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices dropped 0.2% in January, revised upwards from the flash estimate of a 0.4% decline.

Annual consumer inflation in the EU was still at double digits though, reaching 10% in January, down from 10.4% in December 2022.

The lowest annual inflation rate was seen by Luxembourg with 5.8%, Spain with 5.9%, and Malta with 6.8%, while prices rose the most in Hungary (26.2%), Latvia (21.4%), and Czech Republic (19.1%).