(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Annual inflation in the 17-member eurozone was expected to have held steady at 2.2 % for the third consecutive month in January, analysts predicted ahead of the release Friday of latest consumer price data by the European Union statistics office Eurostat.
The last time that inflation fell below the 2 % target set by the European Central Bank was in November 2010.
Both private economists and the ECB now expect inflation to drop beneath 2 per cent during the course of the year as a result of the slowdown in the currency bloc's economies.
The publication of Eurostat's preliminary data, carried by dpa, comes ahead of nextweek's meeting of the ECB's rate-setting council, which is predicted to leave borrowing costs on hold at an historic low of 0.75%.
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