(MENAFN) EU data showed that eurozone's consumer prices, a main gauge of inflation, fell by a record of 0.6 percent in January, confirming that deflation could take hold, Arab News reported.
The drop from -0.2 percent in December appears to back the European Central Bank's decision last week to launch a bond-buying spree to drive up prices, market analysts said.
The -0.6 inflation rate matches the same record drop in prices set in July 2009 at the worst of the global financial crisis. Meanwhile, the unemployment front as the jobless rate fell to at 11.4 percent in December.
"Falling prices and alarmingly pessimistic expectations of where prices are heading in the future proves beyond all reasonable doubt it was high time to act," a senior European economist said.
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