BERLIN, Dec 30: Inflation in Germany eased sharply in December, according to preliminary data published Friday, marking a second month of slowing price gains.
Consumer prices rose 1.7 per cent year-on-year, said federal statistics authority Destatis in a statement.
This was markedly weaker than the 2.0 per cent predicted by analysts and the 2.3 per cent posted in November.
December's slowdown in price gains was down mainly to smaller bumps in energy and food prices.
Energy prices had climbed 4.8 per cent in December compared to a leap of 9.3 per cent in November.
And food prices rose just 1.0 per cent, easing further from the 1.4 per cent recorded in November.
In comparison, growth in rental prices held steady at 1.5 per cent.
The data came after the European Central Bank announced the end of its "quantitative easing" programme that has seen it pump 2.6 trillion euros ($3 trillion) into the eurozone economy to stoke growth and inflation.
The ECB originally began buying debt in 2015, saying it wanted to fight the threat of deflation and keep money flowing around the eurozone economy.
Growth has picked up since then, surging in 2017 before falling back this year, but forecasts see inflation falling short of the central bank's target of close to, but below 2.0 per cent.
According to the latest ECB forecasts, inflation for the eurozone should dip from 1.8 per cent this year to 1.6 per cent in 2019, before mounting back to 1.8 per cent in 2021. -AFP
