Off the wire
• Urgent: Aid enters town near Damascus for first time in 4 years  • Niger's cabinet increases to 41 members  • Feature: Backyard gardens revolutionize agriculture in central Uganda  • South Korean firms sign deals to build hospitals in Iran  • Dubai signs deal with Airbnb to boost tourism industry  • Qomolangma museum under construction in Tibet  • Robots serve elderly in E China nursing home  • News Analysis: Chinese characteristics key to new era in social sciences  • Bulgarian president urges Europe to solve problems today, jointly  • Denmark commits 9 mln USD to social society fund during womens' conference  
You are here: 　 Home

Eurozone inflation confirmed at -0.2 pct in April

Xinhua, May 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

The statistics agency of the European Union (EU) confirmed on Wednesday a flash estimate of eurozone's annual inflation at -0.2 percent in April, making it the second month this year in which the eurozone was in deflation, Eurostat said on Wednesday.

Eurostat said the negative annual rates were observed in 17 member states. The lowest annual rates were registered in Romania at -2.6 percent, while the highest in Belgium at 1.5 percent.

The largest upward impacts to the inflation came from restaurants and cafes, while fuels for transport, heating oil and gas had the biggest downward impacts.

The deflation is a setback that underlines the difficulty of the challenge facing the European Central Bank (ECB) as it struggles to boost consumer prices.

The ECB has launched a series of stimulus packages since mid-2014 in order to achieve its inflation target of "below, but close to 2 percent." Endit