BERLIN (Reuters) – German annual inflation slowed sharply in March to well below the European Central Bank’s target, data showed on Monday, giving the ECB additional leeway to deploy stimulus policy to counter the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
German consumer prices, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries, rose by 1.3 year-on-year after posting a 1.7% increase in the previous month, the Federal Statistics Office said.
The European Central Bank targets inflation of close to but below 2%.
The reading was below a Reuters forecast for 1.4%.
On the month, EU-harmonised prices rose by 0.1% in March, in line with the forecast.
The European Central Bank has ditched a cap on how many bonds it can buy from any single euro zone country, clearing the way for potentially unlimited money-printing as it scales up its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
(Writing by Paul Carrel)
