Euro zone's inflation to turn negative in December

(MENAFN) Euro zone inflation turned negative in December for the first time since 2009, with cheap oil driving a bigger than expected decline that may prompt the European Central Bank to start printing money, Arab News reported.

The European statistics office said in a first estimate that prices in the 18 countries using the euro in December were 0.2 percent lower than a year before, after rising 0.3 percent in November. The last time euro zone inflation was negative was in October 2009, when it was -0.1 percent.

Economists expected a -0.1 percent annually decrease in prices. The ECB aims to keep inflation just under 2 percent over the medium term and is widely expected to respond to the lurch into deflation by launching a program of government bond buying with new money, or quantitative easing.