European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has said the eurozone is "very close" to meeting its medium-term inflation target.
The final data presented last week showed that consumer price growth accelerated in November, but weaker than economists' forecasts and preliminary estimates. Meanwhile, core inflation has remained unchanged again. According to the report, the consumer price index rose by 2.2% per year after an increase of 2.0% per year in October. Economists had expected an increase of 2.3%. Meanwhile, on a monthly basis, the consumer price index fell by 0.3%, as expected, after a 0.3% increase in October. This was the sharpest decline since January, when the CPI fell by 0.4% Eurostat reported that the core consumer price index - excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco - rose by 2.7% per year, as expected, after a similar increase in October. Thus, inflation remained at its lowest level since February 2022.
Earlier in December, Lagarde said that the ECB would further ease monetary policy if inflation continued to fall to the ECB's 2% target, as there was no longer a need to curb economic growth.
"We are very close to the stage when we can declare that we have steadily brought inflation to our medium-term 2%. But we still need to remain vigilant about inflation in the service sector, where price increases are still 3.9% and not budgeting much," Lagarde said.
Meanwhile, the head of the ECB noted that she opposes European retaliatory measures to threats of US tariffs.