Eurozone inflation accelerated sharply in December to 1.3 percent, official data said on Tuesday, but it still remains well below the European Central Bank's target of near two percent. The figure by the EU's Eurostat service is in line with the forecasts of analysts surveyed by financial data service Factset. In November, the annual inflation rate was 1.0 percent.
Crucially, the eurozone's core inflation rate, which strips out volatile components such as energy, remained at 1.3 percent. The rise in prices comes after ECB chief Christine Lagarde last month announced a review of policy that is to include a closer look at persistently low inflation in Europe despite major stimulus.
A central focus of the reassessment, the ECB's first since 2003, will be whether the bank's main objective of keeping inflation "close to, but below" two percent remains relevant after years of anaemic price growth.
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