Annual consumer price inflation in the Euro Area has picked up to 2% in October from 1.7% in September, preliminary data by Eurostat showed.

September’s rate has been the lowest since April 2021.

Market consensus had pointed to a lesser acceleration – to 1.9%.

Still, inflation is now in line with the European Central Bank’s target.

In October, energy prices decreased at a slower rate, by 4.6% YoY compared to a 6.1% YoY drop in the prior month.

Conversely, inflation accelerated for:

– food, alcohol and tobacco (2.9% YoY from 2.4% YoY in September);
– non-energy industrial goods (0.5% YoY from 0.4% YoY in September).

The bloc’s annual core inflation rate, which excludes volatile categories such as food and energy, has remained steady at 2.7% in October. The latter has been the lowest core rate since February 2022.

The Euro was 0.12% firmer on the day against the US Dollar, with the EUR/USD currency pair last trading at 1.0868.