{"id":447927,"date":"2026-03-18T12:21:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/18\/eurostat-conferma-linflazione-all19-per-cento-a-febbraio-occhi-puntati-sulla-bce\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T14:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T13:25:24","slug":"eurostat-confirms-inflation-at-1-9-per-cent-in-february-eyes-on-the-ecb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/18\/eurostat-confirms-inflation-at-1-9-per-cent-in-february-eyes-on-the-ecb\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurostat confirms inflation at 1.9 per cent in February; eyes on the ECB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 In February, inflation<\/strong> in the eurozone rose by 0.2 percentage points to 1.9 per cent. Eurostat confirms the preliminary estimates released earlier this month<\/a>, albeit with minor revisions compared to the forecast. Compared with January, the rise in food prices is more modest<\/strong> (+2.5 per cent instead of the preliminary +2.6 per cent), and the decline in the energy category is also slightly smaller (-3.1 per cent instead of -3.2 per cent). The figure for services, however, remains stable (+3.4 per cent). <\/p>\n

At the Member State level, the inflation rate in Italy rose by half a percentage point<\/strong> (from 1 per cent in January to 1.5 per cent in February), while it increased even further in France (from 0.4 per cent to 1.1 per cent). There was a slight increase in Spain (+0.1 percentage points, to 2.5 per cent), while in Germany it dipped 0.1 percentage points, to 2.0 per cent. <\/p>\n

The final data comes at a crucial moment for the decisions the European Central Bank is set to take. Tomorrow (19 March), the Governing Council<\/a> will meet to discuss monetary policy, and all eyes will be on the board to see whether interest rates will be changed. A decision to wait and see is likely, and therefore, the option of leaving everything unchanged<\/strong>. Eurostat data show a mixed picture, but nevertheless an average level close to the ECB\u2019s target of 2 per cent, and, therefore, a potential tightening could be postponed until the meeting on 29 April<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The Frankfurt-based institution makes no secret of its concerns regarding the repercussions of the current conflict in Iran<\/a>, although the extent to which this affects growth and inflation depends heavily on its duration and the evolution of a situation that is difficult to predict. A potential resumption of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz could ease price pressures and influence the ECB\u2019s policy stance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Statistical Office has released the final data, which will help the European Central Bank in its interest rate decisions to be taken tomorrow (19 March)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":251565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[26112,26151,31425,26105,26107],"class_list":["post-447927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-bce-en","tag-bank-central-en-en","tag-eurostat-en-2","tag-dati-eurostat-en","tag-inflation-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447928,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447927\/revisions\/447928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}