Eurozone inflation stable

Brussels: Inflation in the eurozone remained at a low 1.0 percent in August, official data showed on Friday, heaping pressure on the European Central Bank to reboot its controversial economic stimulus.The data from EU´s Eurostat agency was in line with forecasts of analysts surveyed by data company Factset and far from the ECB´s target rate of just below 2.0 percent.

The data landed amid concern about the global economy, which is in severe turbulence caused by the US-China trade war that has punished Europe´s export powerhouse Germany.

The ECB will look closely at core inflation that strips out volatile prices such as energy, which also remained unchanged at a lowly 0.9 percent in August. The unemployment rate in the eurozone meanwhile remained stable at 7.5 percent in July, its lowest level since July 2008, Eurostat said.

That figure matched the consensus forecast by Factset. Meanwhile the unemployment rate in the 28-member EU, also stayed flat at 6.3 percent, the lowest level since 2000.

In the 19 countries that share the euro, the jobless rate has now returned to where it was when the global economic crisis unfolded in 2007-2008. During the crisis, unemployment hit a peak of 12.1 percent in April and May 2013. Since falling back into single digits in September 2016 the jobless rate in the eurozone has steadily moved lower.