Eurozone inflation slows to 2.5 % in June: Eurostat data

In June, the inflation rate in the Eurozone stood at 2.5%, down slightly from 2.6% in May. This is the indication provided by Eurostat's flash estimate.

Last May, the unemployment rate in the Eurozone was 6.4 per cent, the same level as in April and slightly lower than the 6.5 per cent in May 2023. In the 27 EU countries as a whole, the unemployment rate also remained unchanged compared to April at 6 per cent. This was announced today by Eurostat. Youth unemployment remained at 14.2 per cent in the Eurozone in May (as it was in April) and rose from 14.5 to 14.4 per cent in the 27 EU countries as a whole. In Italy the under-25s without a job were 20.5% in May compared to 20.4 in April and 20.3 in March, while in February 2024 they were 22.4%.

Improved confidence in the ECB's inflation forecast allows the Governing Council to consider interest rate cuts at each monetary policy meeting. This is what the governor of Portugal's Central Bank Mario Centeno said in an interview with Cnbc on the sidelines of the work of the ECB Forum in Sintra. "The latest figures we received showed that our forecast was correct" and "this gives us confidence that inflation will come down to 2 per cent in a timely manner," Centeno said. "And as this confidence strengthens with the correctness of these forecasts," he added, "I think we can assess at each meeting the monetary policy measures while maintaining the right level of prudence.