\n<\/p>\n
Downtown Amsterdam<\/p>\n
Jacobh | E+ | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Euro zone inflation stood at 2% in December, flash data from Eurostat showed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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%<\/a>. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The ECB held its key deposit facility\u00a0rate at 2% for the fourth consecutive time in December, having last cut rates in June.<\/p>\n The trim, which coincided with\u00a0euro zone inflation hitting 2%<\/a>, was part of a rate-cutting cycle that has brought rates down from 2024’s\u00a0record\u00a0high\u00a0of 4%<\/a>.<\/p>\n Top ECB board members told CNBC late last year that\u00a0the easing cycle is close to, or at its end<\/a>,\u00a0although the central bank has repeatedly said it will take a meeting-by-meeting and data dependent approach to rate setting.<\/p>\n