News & Feeds April 2, 2023

Euro-area inflation: lower but stickier

Inflation drops sharply on base effects from energy price increases in March last year, while core inflation continues to increase driven by higher service price inflation, which will keep the ECB worried about the stickiness of inflation. Euro-area inflation dropped to 6.9% y/y in March according to the flash estimate. That is a decent drop from 8.5% y/y in February and a tad lower than Bloomberg consensus at 7.1% y/y. Core inflation, however, increased to 5.7% y/y in March from 5.6% y/y in February. The headline drop is a base effect from the rapidly increasing energy prices in March last year. Details show tha