The Eurozone’s inflation rate unexpectedly fell for the second consecutive month in December, according to new data released by the European statistical agency Eurostat.
Inflation dropped to 9.2%, down from 10.1% in the previous month, driven largely by a slowdown in the cost of energy. Prior to this decrease, inflation had been steadily increasing since October, reaching an all-time high of 10.6%.
Analysts at Bloomberg and Factset had expected inflation to be 9.5% and 9.7% respectively, in December, but the rate fell below even these estimates.
Within the energy sector, electricity, gas, and oil, continued to experience a high rate of annual price increase in December, but there was a significant decrease from 34.9% to 25.7%.
The Eurozone is now making steps towards slowing down the rate of inflation, but it is unclear how sustained the change will be.