Consumer prices in the eurozone rose 10% in November from a year ago, slightly lessening the pace of increase from 10.6% last month.



It is the first time since June 2021 that inflation in the eurozone has slowed in 17 months.



According to Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, energy prices in the eurozone rose 34.9% from a year ago, but were lower than the previous month thanks to falling oil prices.



Grocery, alcohol and cigarettes jumped 13.6% year-on-year and rose more than the previous month.



Other goods were up 6.1% from a year ago, and services were up 4.2%.



Core inflation (excluding agricultural products and oil), which shows the basic trend of prices, rose 5.0%.



Looking at inflation rates (estimates) by major countries converted based on the indicator (HICP) used by the European Central Bank (ECB), the Netherlands' inflation rate slowed the most, from 16.8% in October to 11.2% in November.



Inflation in France rose only 7.1%, the same as in October, Germany slowed from 11.6% in October to 11.3% in November, and Spain slowed from 7.3% in October to 6.6% in November.



The three Baltic countries, Estonia (21.3%), Lithuania (21.4%), and Latvia (21.7%), slowed slightly from the previous month, but still showed an increase of 20%.



Amid controversy among economists over whether inflation in the eurozone has peaked, attention is focused on what decision the European Central Bank (ECB) will make at its monetary policy meeting on the 15th.



The market's interest is whether the ECB will make another giant step (0.75%p increase) or reduce the increase to a big step (0.5%p increase).



The ECB has taken a giant step for two months in a row since it began its journey toward normalizing interest rates last July by raising the benchmark interest rate for the first time in 11 years as a big step.



The majority of economists expected the ECB to raise rates by 0.5 percentage points in a recent survey, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) of Germany reported.



“It would be surprising if inflation in Europe passed the peak last month,” ECB President Christine Lagarde said earlier in a speech to the European Parliament. revealed.