Eurostat announces Euro zone's provisional inflation rate

Eurostat announces Euro zone’s provisional inflation rate

According to preliminary data released by the EU statistics institution Eurostat, the annual inflation rate in the Euro zone fell slightly in September to 2.2% from 2.3% recorded in August, despite the record increase in oil prices. The provisional data from Eurostat is based on inflation rates from three Euro zone countries, Germany, Belgium and Italy. Companies, including Europe's largest carmaker Volkswagen AG and Europe's largest clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB, are reducing prices on some products to spur demand. Euro zone's economy decelerated in the second quarter as the pace of growth in consumer spending halved. The other figures published by European Commission show that Euro zone business confidence index fell by 0.03 points in September to 0.48 points. The commission said that confidence dropped because business leaders reduced their expectations for export orders.