October inflation decelerates
Greece’s headline consumer price inflation rate decelerated to 3.9 percent year-on-year in October from 4.6 percent in the previous month, due to lower energy costs, with another sharp drop expected in November. The National Statistics Service (NSS) said yesterday a drop of almost 10 percent in gasoline prices and a 7.7 reduction in heating oil contributed to the lower price index. «Based on prices recorded in the first 10 days of November…in combination with last year’s price hikes, the general price index is expected to be 3.2 percent (this month),» said Manolis Kontopyrakis, NSS General Secretary. The European Union’s harmonized inflation measure slipped to 4 percent from 4.7 percent in September. Greece makes up about 2.5 percent of the eurozone’s economy. Last month, the government revised its inflation forecast for this year to an average of 4.5 percent from a previous estimate of 3.5 percent.
