Eurozone final inflation rises 2.4% MoM in March vs. 2.5% expected

• Eurozone inflation arrives at 7.4% YoY in March, misses estimates.
• Monthly HICP in the bloc rises by 2.4% in March.
• EUR/USD keeps gains above 1.0900 on the downbeat Eurozone data.

Eurozone’s Inflation rose 7.4% in March, on a yearly basis, according to Eurostat’s final reading of the Eurozone Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) report for the month. The reading disappointed expectations of 7.5% while against the 7.5% previous. Core figures rose by 2.9%, missing the 3.0% market estimates.       

The bloc’s HICP rose by 2.4% versus 2.5% expected and 0.9% booked in February while the core HICP numbers also came in at 1.2% versus 1.2% expected and 1.2% last.

Key details (via Eurostat):

“The lowest annual rates were registered in Malta (4.5%), France (5.1%) and Portugal (5.5%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Lithuania (15.6%), Estonia (14.8%) and Czechia (11.9%).”

“Compared with February, annual inflation fell in two Member States and rose in twenty-five. In March, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (+4.36 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+1.12 pp), food, alcohol & tobacco (+1.07 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (+0.90 pp).”

FX implications:

EUR/USD is off the highs but holds the latest gains above 1.0900 despite the dismal Eurozone data.

At the press time, the pair is trading at 1.0922, higher by 0.67% on the day.