Annual inflation in the euro zone cooled to 0.3 per cent in November, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Friday, pulled down by falling energy prices and suggesting deflation remains a real threat for the European Central Bank.

The reading was as expected by economists polled by Reuters and followed Germany’s inflation reading this week that fell to its lowest level in nearly five years.

The November euro zone figure compared to 0.4 per cent in October. Consumer inflation has not been at the ECB’s target level of close to 2 per cent since the start of 2013 and has been falling since a 3 per cent peak in late 2011.

The ECB considers anything below 1 per cent to be in its deflation “danger zone”.

Energy prices fell 2.5 per cent from October and by 1.1 per cent on an annual basis. Core inflation, stripping out volatile energy and food prices, was 0.7 per cent, unchanged from October but still on a downward trend.

Also reflecting the general malaise in the euro zone’s economy, unemployment remained at 11.5 percent of the working population for the third month in a row in October.

The number of jobless people actually rose by 60,000 to 18.39 million.

Reuters