Eurozone inflation holds steady at 2% in July

(Sharecast News) - The annual rate of inflation across the eurozone unexpectedly held steady in July, according to figures out on Friday from Eurostat, staying in line with the European Central Bank's 2% target level. The year-on-year change in the consumer price index was 2.0% last month, in line with June, Eurostat reported in its preliminary estimates for July.

The consensus of analysts had expected inflation to dip back down to May's level of 1.9%.

Food, alcohol and tobacco prices climbed 3.3% in July, compared with 12 months earlier, up from 3.1% in June, while non-energy industrial goods inflation picked up to 0.8% from 0.5%.

Service-sector price rises slowed to 3.1% from 3.3%, while the decline in energy prices eased to -2.5% from -2.6%.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile items like energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, was also unchanged at 2.3% for the third straight month, having fallen from 2.7% in April.

Estonia continues to register the highest rate of inflation across the single-currency region, with price growth accelerating to 5.6% from 5.2%; while Cyprus saw the lowest level at 0.1%, down from 0.5% the month before.