German inflation eases again in January

BERLIN – German annual inflation slowed down in January but remained slightly above analyst expectations and well above the European Central Bank’s price stability target of 2% for the euro zone as a whole, preliminary data showed on Monday.

Consumer prices, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries (HICP), rose 5.1% year-on-year after 5.7% in December, the Federal Statistics Office said.

The national consumer price index (CPI) rose by 4.9% year-on-year, which also marked a decrease in price pressures after an inflation rate of 5.3% in December.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the CPI rate to drop to 4.3% and the HICP figure to ease to 4.7%.