Euro inflation retreats to 1.6 per cent in August
(BRUSSELS) - Inflation throughout the 16-nation eurozone retreated to 1.6 percent in August, having hit a near two-year high point in the summer, European Union data showed on Tuesday.
The 12-month rate slipped from 1.7 percent in July, although it has risen almost continuously from 0.5 percent last November during the bloc's emergence from the world's worst recession since the 1930s.
Inflation in the single currency area in July was the highest since November 2008, when it stood at 2.1 percent -- just above the European Central Bank's core economic target of 2.0 percent.
In the wider, 27-nation EU, which includes non-euro heavyweights in Britain and Poland, annual inflation rose to 2.1 percent in July compared to 1.9 percent a month earlier.
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