2024-03-19 12:52:08
Inflation in Greece fell to 3.1% in February 2024, from 3.2% in January, according to Eurostat data.
A year ago, inflation in Greece stood at 6.5%.
In the Eurozone, annual inflation fell to 2.6% in February 2024, from 2.8% in January. A year ago, inflation had climbed to 8.5%.
In the European Union, inflation eased to 2.8% in February from 3.1% in January and 9.9% a year ago.
The lowest rates were recorded in Latvia and Denmark (0.6%), but also Italy (0.8%).
The highest percentages were recorded in Romania (7.1%), Croatia (4.8%) and Estonia (4.4%).
Compared to January, annual inflation fell in 20 Member States, remained stable in five and rose in two.
Products
In February, the highest contribution to the euro area’s annual inflation rate came from services (+1.73 percentage points).
This is followed by food, alcohol and tobacco (+0.79 percentage points), non-energy industrial goods (+0.42 percentage points) and energy (-0.36 percentage points).
H EKT
European officials are being asked to solve a difficult equation with elections for the European Parliament making it even more difficult to solve the stagnation in which most of the economy finds itself.
Historically high interest rates, persistent structural inflation around one percentage point above target, but also subdued economic activity, make solving the equation a difficult task among the opposing views that dominate the Frankfurt institution, the European Central Bank.
Inflation shows better signs towards target next year as EU growth outlook falters. The updated ECB staff forecast now sees inflation averaging 2.3% in 2024, up from 2.7% in the previous estimate, 2.0% in 2025 and 1.9% in 2026. Hence , according to the ECB’s estimates, inflation is expected not only to reach the 2% target next year, but also to fall slightly below this target in 2026.
Source: OT.GR