German inflation picks up in March

Annual inflation rate in Germany returned to an above-zero level in March, but remained far below the authority's maintenance target, official data showed on Wednesday.

Compared with the same month of previous year, German consumer prices rose by 0.3 percent in March 2016, said German federal statistics office Destatis, citing its preliminary calculations. In February, Germany's consumer price index (CPI) stayed unchanged with January.

Measured with the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), the European Union's standard, German annual inflation also climbed to 0.1 percent in March from minus 0.2 percent in February.

The increase of inflation rate in Europe's biggest economy somewhat eased concerns of the European Central Bank who feared that long-lasting low inflation would harm the economy.

The central bank set its inflation maintenance target at "below, but close to" 2 percent. Earlier this month, it cut all its three benchmark interest rates and expanded its quantitative easing program to purchase assets worth 80 billion euros (about 90.5 billion U.S. dollars) per month.

The European Union's statistics office was scheduled to release March prices data of the euro zone on Thursday. Analysts expected inflation rate in the common currency area to inch higher from the level of minus 0.2 percent in February. Endit