Driven by energy and food, inflation had reached an all-time high every month since November 2021. The situation had worsened since the spring with the market disruptions linked to the war in Ukraine.
The fall observed in November is greater than what analysts from Bloomberg and Factset had anticipated, who had forecast inflation at 10.4%.
The slowdown in price increases mainly concerned energy.
This component of the index rose by 34.9% on an annual basis, after 41.5% in October.
The surge in food prices (including alcohol and tobacco), however, continued to accelerate to 13.6%, up 0.5 points from the previous month.
The annual rise in prices in industry remained stable at 6.1% in November, while it slowed down slightly in services to 4.2% (-0.1 point).
Among the 19 countries sharing the single currency, Spain dethroned France for the lowest inflation rate at 6.6%, against 7.1% in France, according to harmonized data from Eurostat .
Inflation fell slightly in Germany to 11.3% (-0.3 point) and in Italy to 12.5% (-0.1 point).
The fall in inflation in November should ease the pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB), which is engaged in raising rates.
But ECB President Christine Lagarde stressed on Monday that she would be "surprised" if inflation had peaked in October, suggesting that it was therefore likely to continue to rise in the coming months and that monetary tightening in course would continue.
“I would like to see inflation peaking in October but I think there is too much uncertainty” to assume that is the case, she told a hearing before the European Parliament.
© 2022 AFP