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Annual inflation up to 0.5 pct in eurozone

Xinhua, November 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Annual inflation in the 19-member eurozone rose to 0.5 percent in October 2016, up from 0.4 percent in September, said Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), on Thursday.

In the 28-member EU bloc, annual inflation was also 0.5 percent in October 2016.

A year earlier, the rate was 0.1 percent in the eurozone and zero in the EU.

In October, negative annual rates were observed in six EU member states. The lowest rates were observed in Bulgaria and Cyprus, both at minus 1.0 percent. The highest annual rates were recorded in Belgium and Austria.

Energy prices fell 0.9 percent year-on-year in October, rebounding from a 3.0-percent decline in the previous month.

Meanwhile, inflation in food, alcohol and tobacco fell to 0.4 percent year-on-year, from 0.7 percent in September, constrained by a fall in the price increase of unprocessed foods, according to the economist.

Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the European Central Bank's (ECB) target of 2.0 percent of annual inflation is "well out of sight." But the ECB has stated that it will look through higher energy prices, which should allow it to extend quantitative easing (EQ). Endit