Eurozone inflation stays at 0.2% in December

Inflation in the eurozone remained at 0.2% in December, unchanged from November, official statistics show.

Price growth in food, alcohol and tobacco slowed slightly compared with November, while the drop in energy prices was also smaller, according to Eurostat estimates.

The rate was lower than the 0.3% rise expected by economists.

The data will put pressure on the European Central Bank to act further to boost the struggling European economy.

The central bank disappointed market hopes last month with its attempts to revive the economy, which were less dramatic than analysts had expected.

The inflation figures are an early, flash estimate from Eurostat and so are not broken down by member states.

It does give broad indications of which groups of products have gone up or down.

Food, alcohol and tobacco prices were estimated to be rising 1.2% year-on-year in December, compared with 1.5% in November.

Energy prices were falling an annual 5.9%, compared with 7.3% a month earlier.

And the price of services was up 1.1%, compared with 1.2% the month before.