Food & non-alcoholic beverages inflation slowed to a seven-month low of 0.3 percent in October from 0.8 percent in the previous month. In addition, there was a fall in prices of: restaurants & hotels (-0.6 percent vs 3.3 percent); recreation & culture (-0.5 percent vs 0.4 percent); clothing & footwear (-3.7 percent vs -3.6 percent); and furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house (-0.2 percent vs -0.4 percent).
On the other hand, inflation was unchanged for housing & utilities (at 2.7 percent) and picked up for transport (4.8 percent vs 4.6 percent), and miscellaneous goods and services (0.9 percent vs 0.6 percent).
Annual core inflation, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products, eased to 0.4 percent in October, below a preliminary estimate of 0.6 percent and September's final reading of 0.9 percent.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices edged down 0.1 percent in October, instead of being unchanged as initially thought and following an increase of 1.1 percent in September. October's decline was led by a fall in restaurants & hotels prices (-2.6 percent vs 2.5 percent).
The harmonized consumer price index rose by 0.8 percent year-on-year (vs 1.8 percent in September) and decreased by 0.5 percent month-over-month (vs 1.5 percent in September).