May 2016

As growth rates in the Eurozone gather steam, policymakers’ concerns are increasingly shifting to low inflation. According to Eurostat, consumer prices in the Eurozone have declined by 0.2% in the past year. Much of the drop is due to sharply lower energy prices, but even when those are stripped out annual price growth stood at 0.7% as of April, significantly less than the ECB’s “close to, but below” 2% target.