Annual inflation in the eurozone fell to 9.2% in December

The European Union’s statistics office (Eurostat) said on Wednesday that the rate of consumer price inflation slowed in the European single currency area (euro) in December, as expected, thanks to the continued decline in energy prices after reaching record levels earlier.

Eurostat added that prices in the twenty countries that share the eurozone fell 0.4 percent on a monthly basis, while they rose 9.2 percent on an annual basis.

Energy prices fell 6.6 percent month-on-month and registered a 25.5 percent year-on-year increase, down from the 34.9 percent year-on-year increase in the previous month.

As a result, energy prices are no longer the main cause of inflation on an annual basis, as they increased by only 2.79 percentage points, while food prices increased by 2.88 percentage points.

Non-energy industrial goods prices rose 1.70 percentage points, while services prices continued at 1.83 points. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, prices rose 0.7 percent month-on-month, while an annual increase of 6.9 percent.

Another measure, which excludes tobacco and alcohol prices, showed that inflation rose 0.6 percent on a monthly basis, compared to an increase of 5.2 percent on an annual basis.