Eurozone annual inflation fell more than expected in December, but core inflation rose, increasing pressure on the European Central Bank to keep inflation under control, which is nearly five times the 2% target, Reuters and Agerpres reported .

According to a preliminary estimate published on Friday by Eurostat, annual inflation in the eurozone slowed to 9.2% in December, compared to 10.1% in the previous month. The figure announced by Eurostat is better than analysts’ estimates, which expected a 9.7% increase in prices.

The decline in inflation in the eurozone is mainly due to the fact that energy prices registered a 25.7% increase in December, significantly lower than the 34.9% recorded in the previous month.

In November, inflation in the Eurozone fell for the first time in a year and a half, having reached a record level only a month ago.

Conversely, food price inflation continued to accelerate from 13.6% in November to 13.8% in December. In addition, Eurostat data showed that core inflation, the inflation that remains after the prices of volatile goods such as energy and food, continued to rise to 6.9% from 6.6% in November.

Core inflation is a measure that the ECB monitors closely when developing its monetary policy decisions.

Where is the lowest inflation in the eurozone

Among the countries of the euro zone, the highest inflation was recorded in the Baltic countries, in all of them with a price increase of more than 20%, the leaders are Latvia (20.7%), Lithuania (20%) and Estonia (17.5%).

At the opposite pole, the smallest price increase was recorded in Spain (5.6%).

In order to reduce inflation in the Eurozone, the European Central Bank in December raised the interest rate of monetary policy by 50 basis points to 2.5%, the fourth increase in a row.

In its latest forecasts, the ECB expects inflation in the euro area to be 8.4% in 2022, 6.3% in 2023 and 3.4% in 2024.