Greece’s EU-harmonised inflation rose 0.4 percent in December, edging to a positive rate for the first time after 33 straight months of deflation, data from the country’s statistics service showed on Wednesday.
But the headline consumer price index fell 0.2 percent year-on-year in December, with the annual pace of deflation decelerating from the previous month.
For years an inflation outlier in the euro zone, Greece has been in deflation mode for the last two and a half years as wage and pension cuts in turn for austerity and a protracted recession took a heavy toll on Greek households’ income.
Slowdown in the decline of energy prices
Deflation in Greece, which signed up to its first international bailout five years ago, hit its highest level in November 2013, when consumer prices registered a 2.9 percent year-on-year decline.
Greek consumer prices fell by an average of 1.4 percent in 2014 compared to a year earlier.
Annual euro zone inflation was revised up to 0.2 percent in November, rising slightly more than expected because of a slowdown in the decline of energy prices.
Source: Reuters
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