Eurozone deflation gathering pace

PanARMENIAN.Net - Deflation across the 19 countries that use the eurozone currency is gathering pace, BBC News reports.

In January, prices in the eurozone were 0.6% down on their levels a year ago.

The figure shows the eurozone heading deeper into deflationary territory from December, when prices were 0.2% down on the year before.

A large contributor to falling prices is the cost of energy, with oil prices down almost 60% on the middle of last year. Energy prices plunged 8.9% in January.

Last week The European Central Bank (ECB) launched a quantitative easing programme injecting money into the economy to try to pull prices back up.

There was better news on unemployment which fell to 11.4% in December, down from 11.5% in November and 11.8% a year before.