Eurozone March inflation confirmed at 1.5 pct

Inflation across the 19-country eurozone in March was confirmed at 1.5 percent due to a slowdown in energy price hiking, official data showed Wednesday.

Inflation in the bloc has surprised markets and policy-makers since the end of last year with figures remaining above 1.0 percent, ending the year-long subdued readings and close to the European Central Bank's (ECB) inflation goal.

In February, inflation in the eurozone reached 2.0 percent due to the soaring energy price, which increased by 9.3 percent and emerged as the main driver behind the inflation improvement. In March, the price in the energy sector only grew by 7.4 percent, according to the bloc's statistics agency Eurostat.

The core inflation, which excludes volatile elements such as energy and food, stood at 0.8 percent, lower than the 0.9 percent of previous months and was expected to put pressure on the ECB.

In the wider European Union (EU), the annual inflation was 1.6 percent in March 2017, down from 2.0 percent in February. As usual, great disparities were recorded in the bloc.

The lowest annual rates were registered in Romania at 0.4 percent, followed by Ireland and the Netherlands both at 0.6 percent, while the highest rates were recorded in Latvia at 3.3 percent, and Lithuania at 3.2 percent.

Compared with February 2017, annual inflation fell in 17 member states, remained stable in six, and rose in five, the agency said.

In December, the ECB extended its bond buying program by nine months until the end of 2017, aiming to further shore up the bloc's growth and push the inflation to reach the target. From April, the bank bought only 60 billion euros (64 billion U.S. dollars) of bonds a month, rather than 80 billion euros.

The ECB repeatedly claimed it would increase the asset purchasing program if the inflation outlook were subdued. Endit