German inflation unchanged at 2.4% in November

By Maria Martinez

BERLIN (Reuters) – German inflation remained flat in November despite expectations of a second consecutive increase interrupting the downward trend in Europe’s troubled largest economy.

Inflation stayed at 2.4%, the federal statistics office said on Thursday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 2.6% this month, after German consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other European Union countries, had risen by 2.4% year-on-year in October.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was at 3.0% in November.

The German data comes ahead of the euro zone inflation release on Friday. Harmonised inflation in the euro zone is expected to rise to 2.3% in November from 2.0% the previous month, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Investors are watching the inflation data for Germany and the euro zone as a whole to gauge the next steps of the European Central Bank.

The ECB is expected to cut interest rates further at its upcoming meetings, but the scale and speed of that course is unclear.