Eurozone inflation unchanged at 3% in October

2011-11-16 07:40:51

16 November 2011 Last updated at 10:35 GMT

Inflation in the eurozone remained at 3% in October, unchanged from September, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency.

The rate is still above the European Central Bank's target of 2%, but analysts suggested that the rate may fall in the coming months.

The lowest rates were seen in the Irish Republic (1.1%) and Greece (2.9%).

Estonia, Slovakia and Portugal had the highest inflation rates, with figures of 4% or more.

Eurostat's figures also showed that across the 27-nation EU, the UK had the highest inflation rate at 5%.

On 3 November, the European Central Bank (ECB) cut eurozone interest rates to 1.25% from 1.5%.

At the time, the new ECB president Mario Draghi told a news conference that eurozone growth was likely to remain weak, with the bloc facing an "environment of high uncertainty".

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said survey data indicated that price pressures in the eurozone were "abating in the face of weakened economic activity and high and rising unemployment".

"Consequently, we expect the ECB to respond to weak eurozone economic activity and likely GDP contraction in the fourth quarter by following November's interest rate cut from 1.50% to 1.25% with a further 25 basis points reduction to 1.00% within the next couple of months," he said.