ECB: Eurozone Inflation Outlook is Brightening
The European Central Bank said Thursday that its raft of different policy measures appears to have banished the spectre of deflation in the 19-country eurozone, where long-term inflation expectations are moving up again.
"After having reached low levels in mid-January, longer-term inflation expectations in the euro area have recovered. The decline observed over the previous two years has thus come to a halt," the ECB wrote in its latest economic bulletin.
"The recovery of longer-term inflation expectations in the euro area indicates that both professional forecasters and market participants are now again more confident that inflation will return to a level below, but close to, 2.0 percent over the medium term."
In January, the ECB unveiled plans to embark on a massive 1.14-trillion-euro ($1.3-trillion) bond purchase programme in order to pump liquidity into the financial system and push inflation -- which had slowed to dangerously low levels -- back up to target.
According to data released in Brussels, the eurozone exited four months of deflation in April, reversing a dangerous bout of declining prices and reviving hopes of economic recovery in Europe.
Inflation in the 19-nation single currency bloc hit zero percent in April, after a drop of 0.1 percent in March, with low energy costs still impacting the cost of living, the EU statistics agency Eurostat said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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