Eurozone inflation moderates in February to 2.6% and to 2.8% in the EU

In the second month of 2024, the inflation data in the eurozone was due to a year-on-year drop in energy prices of 3.7% from the 6.1% drop in January, while fresh food became more expensive by 2 .1%, well below the 6.9% increase in the first month of the year.

For its part, the annual increase in the cost of services remained at 4%, while the increase in the price of non-energy industrial goods slowed to 1.6%, four tenths less than in January.

In this way, the euro zone inflation rate when discounting the impact of energy was 3.3%, compared to 3.8% in January 2024, while also excluding food, alcohol and tobacco , the underlying rate fell to 3.1% from 3.3%, its lowest level since March 2022 (3%).

Among the Twenty-Seven, the lowest annual rates were recorded in Latvia and Denmark (both 0.6%) and Italy (0.8%), while the highest levels of inflation were recorded in Romania (7.1%), Croatia (4.8%) and Estonia (4.4%).

In the case of Spain, the harmonized inflation rate stood at 2.9% in February, compared to 3.5% in January, reducing the unfavorable price differential for the country with respect to the eurozone average to three tenths. .

In the rest of the main euro zone economies, the inflation rate in February stood at 2.7% in Germany and 3.2% in France, below price increases of 3.1% and 3.4%, respectively, in January. In the case of Italy, prices rose 0.8% in February, after 0.9% year-on-year the previous month.

In its last meeting, the European Central Bank (ECB) updated its inflation projections, improving those for 2024 and 2025 due, fundamentally, to a lower contribution from energy prices, and now anticipates that the general rate will be on average at 2.3% this year and drop to the desired 2% in 2025 to stand at 1.9% in 2026.

If the impact of energy and food is excluded, the underlying variable will remain at 2.6% in 2024, 2.1% in 2025 and 2% in 2026.