Adedokun Waliyu 
Eurozone inflation remained stable in July, official data showed Friday, confounding expectations that consumer price rises would ease.
Inflation in the single currency area stood at 2.0 per cent last month, the EU’s statistics agency said, sustained in part by a smaller drop in energy prices than a month earlier.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet and Bloomberg had predicted inflation would ease to 1.9 per cent, but the July figure remained in line with the European Central Bank’s two-per-cent target.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, was also unchanged at 2.3 per cent, as economists had forecast.
Energy prices, however, fell by 2.5 per cent in July — a smaller drop than the decline of 2.6 per cent recorded in June, Eurostat data showed.
Meanwhile, food and drink price increases accelerated to 3.3 per cent last month, after registering 3.1 per cent in June.
In contrast, service price rises eased to 3.1 per cent in July, from 3.3 per cent in June.
Inflation has sharply dropped from its record peak of 10.6 per cent in October 2022 after Russia’s attack on Ukraine sent energy prices soaring.
With inflation under control, the ECB has moved to cut interest rates to boost the eurozone’s sluggish economic growth.
The central bank is widely expected to keep rates unchanged at its next meeting, whilst eurozone inflation is around the ECB’s two-per-cent target.
But that could change, according to some economists, based on how US President Donald Trump’s tariffs affect the European economy.
Washington and Brussels struck a deal agreeing to 15 per cent customs duties on most EU goods entering the US, which could hurt the bloc’s economic growth.
