Eurozone inflation accelerates to 2.2 pct in September

FRANKFURT

Eurozone inflation edged up in September buoyed by energy costs, official data showed Wednesday, reinforcing expectations the European Central Bank will not make further interest rate cuts this year.

Inflation rose to 2.2 percent last month, from two percent in August, the EU's statistics agency said, above the ECB's two-percent target.

The figure was in line with predictions by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, but economists for FactSet had expected inflation to rise to 2.3 percent.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, was also unchanged at 2.3 percent, as economists for both Bloomberg and FactSet had forecast.

It remained stable despite services price rises accelerating to 3.2 percent in September, from 3.1 percent in August.

Energy costs, however, fell by 0.4 percent in September -- a significantly smaller decline than the 2.0 percent recorded in August, Eurostat data showed.

Food, alcohol and tobacco price rises eased to 3.0 percent in September, from 3.2 percent the previous month.

The September figure will cement the ECB's plans for interest rates, said Riccardo Marcelli Fabiani, senior economist at Oxford Economics.

"Only a strong surprise in inflation could spur a cut this year," he said.

Inflation in Germany and France, the EU's biggest economies, also accelerated in September to 2.4 percent and 1.1 percent respectively, the agency said.