Eurozone Preliminary CPI arrives at -0.3% YoY in December vs. -0.2% expected

According to Eurostat’s flash reading of Eurozone CPI report, the annual reading came in at -0.3% in December, missing expectations of -0.2% and -0.3% previous.

The core figures came in at 0.2% in the reported month when compared to 0.2% expectations and 0.2% seen in November.

Key details (via Eurostat)

“Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, food, alcohol & tobacco is expected to have the highest annual rate in December (1.4%, compared with 1.9% in November), followed by services (0.7%, compared with 0.6% in November), non-energy industrial goods (-0.5%, compared with -0.3% in November) and energy (-6.9%, compared with -8.3% in November).”

Separately, the bloc’s Retail Sales slumped 6.1% MoM in Nov vs. -3.4% expected and 1.4% last. On an annualized basis, Eurozone’s retail volumes fell by 2.9% vs. 0.8% forecast and 4.2% booked in October.

Eurozone’s Business Climate for December stood at -0.41 vs. November’s -0.63 while the Economic Sentiment improved to 90.4 when compared to the previous reading of 87.7 and 90.0 expectations.

EUR/USD reaction

EUR/USD is a few pips off the daily lows of 1.2265, now losing 0.42% to trade at 1.2272.

The Treasury yields rally driven rebound in the US dollar weighs heavily on the major. Focus shifts to the US weekly jobless claims and ISM Services PMI data.