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Euro zone inflation stood at 2% in December, flash data from Eurostat showed on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected the inflation rate to cool to 2%, in line with the European Central Bank’s (ECB) target. In November, the inflation rate stood at 2.1%.
Core inflation, which excludes more volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, stood at 2.3% in the year to December, down from 2.4% in November, while the annual rate of services inflation cooled to 3.4%, compared with 3.5% in November.
The ECB held its key deposit facility rate at 2% for the fourth consecutive time in December, having last cut rates in June.
The trim, which coincided with euro zone inflation hitting 2%, was part of a rate-cutting cycle that has brought rates down from 2024’s record high of 4%.
Top ECB board members told CNBC late last year that the easing cycle is close to, or at its end, although the central bank has repeatedly said it will take a meeting-by-meeting and data dependent approach to rate setting.
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