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Eurozone inflation remained at 2.2 per cent in April, surpassing expectations and complicating the European Central Bank’s task as it considers whether to cut interest rates further at its next meeting in June.
Economists had predicted that the figure would fall to 2.1 per cent in April, according to a poll by Reuters.
The figure marks the sixth month in a row that inflation in the single currency bloc has been above the ECB’s target of 2 per cent.
The euro was flat at $1.134 immediately after the data, up 0.4 per cent on the day.
The ECB began lowering rates last summer after battling to tame an unprecedented surge in consumer prices during the coronavirus pandemic, when inflation peaked at 10.6 per cent.
ECB rate-setters voted unanimously last month to cut rates by a quarter point to 2.25 per cent, citing concerns over growth amid “rising trade tensions” from US President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff agenda.
Christine Lagarde, ECB president, added that “most measures of underlying inflation” suggested that the central bank was on track to meet its target “on a sustained basis”.
While the Eurozone economy performed better than expected in the first three months of the year, with growth of 0.4 per cent, the announcement of Trump’s so-called “reciprocal duties” has since dented the outlook for the region.
This is a developing story
