Inflation accelerates in February from the prior month

Latest reading: Harmonized consumer prices were up 1.9% on a year-on-year basis in February, following a 1.7% rise in the previous month and overshooting market expectations. Relative to the prior month's data, there were higher price pressures for energy prices (-3.1% in annual terms vs -4.0% in January), services (+3.4% vs +3.2% in January) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.6% vs +0.4% in January). In contrast, price pressures reduced for food, alcohol and tobacco in February (+2.6% vs +2.7% in January). Meanwhile, core consumer prices were up 2.4% on a year-on-year basis in February, following a 2.2% increase in the prior month. Lastly, harmonized consumer prices increased 0.66% in February on a month-on-month basis, following a 0.56% decline in the prior month.

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