Eurozone official inflation stable at 2.4% in June
(BRUSSELS) - Eurozone inflation stayed above target in June for the 19th month running, at an annualised 2.4 percent, provisional figures from the EU statistics office Eurostat showed on Friday.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has set a medium-term inflation target of below but close to 2.0 percent, and analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast an average rate of 2.3 percent for June.
But the latest reading of consumer prices did get a boost from drops in many eurozone countries owing in large part to slumping economic activity that has brought oil prices down.
In Belgium, a bellwether economy for the 17-nation eurozone, inflation dropped to 2.26 percent this month on an annualised basis, from 2.81 percent in May, and in Spain it edged down to 1.8 percent from 1.9 percent.
The estimation by Eurostat was released a week before the ECB is to hold its regular monthly meeting, at which many analysts expect the central bank to cut its main lending rate from the current record low of 1.0 percent.
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