German Inflation Eases Marginally In March

(RTTNews) - Germany's inflation eased marginally in March largely due to the slowdown in the cost of services, preliminary data from Destatis revealed on Monday.

The consumer price index logged an annual growth of 2.2 percent, in line with expectations, and slower than the 2.3 percent rise seen in February.

Excluding food and energy, core inflation softened to 2.5 percent from 2.7 percent in the previous month.

Services prices climbed at a pace of 3.4 percent after rising 3.8 percent. Meanwhile, the increase in goods costs edged up to 1.0 percent from 0.9 percent.

EU harmonized inflation weakened more than expected to 2.3 percent from 2.6 percent a month ago. The rate was seen at 2.4 percent.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices moved up 0.3 percent, as initially estimated. Likewise, the harmonized index of consumer prices rose 0.4 percent, which was slightly weaker than forecast of 0.5 percent.