Eurozone inflation stable at 0.8% in February

The euro area annual inflation is expected to be 0.8 percent in February 2014, stable compared with January, according to a flash estimate issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The figure was still well below the European Central Bank's target of just under 2 percent, the agency said. It was the fifth month in a row in which the reading was below 1 percent, a level the ECB, considers a danger zone for deflation. Of the main components of euro area inflation, food, alcohol and tobacco is expected to have the highest annual rate in February at 1.5 percent, compared with 1.7 percent in January. That was followed by services' inflation at 1.3 percent, compared with 1.2 percent in January; non-energy industrial goods at 0.6 percent, compared with 0.2 percent in January; and energy at minus 2.2 percent, compared with minus 1.2 percent in January.