German inflation continues to rise in April

Annual inflation rate in Germany continued to increase in April, moving farther from a negative territory where Germany's consumer prices just escaped in February, official data showed on Wednesday.

Compared with the same month of previous year, German consumer prices increased by 0.4 percent in April, said German federal statistical office Destatis, citing preliminary calculations.

It was the third consecutive month when the inflation rate measured by consumer price index (CPI) stood above zero. The annual inflation rate was 0.3 percent in March and 0.1 percent in February. In January, consumer prices declined by 0.4 percent year-on-year.

When measured by the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP), European Central Bank's (ECB) yardstick, German inflation rate in April also rose to 0.3 percent from 0.1 percent in March.

Analysts said the continuous increasing of inflation in Europe's biggest economy added positive signals to price development of the euro zone.

Despite ECB's maintenance target of "below, but close to" 2 percent, the inflation rate in the 19-nation common currency area teetered at low levels and dipped to negative in December last year.

In March, the HICP inflation in the euro zone was up to minus 0.1 percent after ECB started to inject fresh money into the market via purchasing government bonds and securities.