The pressure on Mario Draghi is growing: if headline inflation could be blamed on oil prices, there are less excuses for the decline in core inflation. Prices excluding energy and unprocessed food have risen by only 0.8% after 0.9% last month. The same goes for prices excluding energy and seasonal food. When looking at prices excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco we still have +0.9%.
EUR/USD seems stable at lower ground, at 1.1365.
Note: the details of the core inflation numbers were updated after the initial publication. The official release is here.
At the same time, the euro-area released trade balance figures for August. Following Germany’s lead, the overall numbers for the whole monetary union dropped to a surplus of 19.8 billion euros, under around 22 billion predicted.
The final figures were expected to confirm the initial read of -0.1% on the headline and +0.9% on the core.
Yesterday, the euro received a blow from the ECB, with Nowotny urging for more action to reach the inflation target. As he said, they are obviously missing the target.
