Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, prices are expected to rise at a softer pace for: food, alcohol and tobacco (1.1 percent vs 1.9 percent in January), of which unprocessed food (-0.9 percent vs 1.1 percent) and processed food, alcohol and tobacco (2.4 percent vs 2.5 percent); and energy (2.1 percent vs 2.2 percent). Meanwhile, inflation should pick up for both services (1.3 percent vs 1.2 percent) and non-energy industrial goods (0.7 percent vs vs 0.6 percent).
Annual core inflation, which excludes volatile prices of energy and unprocessed food and tobacco and at which the ECB looks in its policy decisions, is expected to remain unchanged at 1 percent.