This morning, the European Commission’s Eurostat data centre revealed the CPI inflation readings for the month of February 2023.

According to the statistics, inflation was at 2.6% year-on-year (YoY) last month, in line with expectations.  

Inflation comes down in the EU 

This shows a decrease of 0.2% from January’s inflation reading of 2.8%. It also represents a significant drop, as a year earlier, the rate was 8.5%. 

Source: Eurostat website

Similarly, core inflation was down from 3.3% in January to 3.1% in February.

However, monthly inflation saw a steep increase – up from -0.4% in January 2024 to 0.6% in February.

Ahead of expectations

These readings were broadly in line with market expectations. Forecasts ahead of the announcement put the inflation rate at 2.6% YoY, and 0.6% month-on-month. Likewise, industry forecasts broadly estimated the core inflation rate to be at 3.1% today.

The figures also lent credence to the idea of a European Union interest rate cut as early as June 2024.

Ahead of expectations

These readings were broadly in line with market expectations. Forecasts ahead of the announcement put the inflation rate at 2.6% YoY, and 0.6% month-on-month. Likewise, industry forecasts broadly estimated the core inflation rate to be at 3.1% today.

The figures also lent credence to the idea of a European Union interest rate cut as early as June 2024.

Lower inflation in 20 states

In terms of country-by-country, inflation figures were positive here too. Compared with January, annual inflation fell in twenty member states, remained stable in five and rose in two.

The highest annual rates were recorded in Romania (7.1%), Croatia (4.8%) and Estonia (4.4%)., while the lowest annual rates were registered in Latvia, Denmark (both 0.6%) and Italy (0.8%).

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