Europe’s inflation eases to 6.9% as energy falls but food up

By KELVIN CHAN
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro currency have slowed to the lowest level in a year. Energy prices dropped in March, but food costs were still on the rise, keeping pressure on the European Central Bank to keep raising interest rates. Data released Friday by the European Union’s statistics agency shows that consumer prices rose 6.9% in March from a year earlier, down from 8.5% in February. Economists focused on so-called core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and increased to a record 5.7%. They expect that to push the central bank to keep raising interest rates. Prices for food, alcohol and tobacco rose by a painful 15.4%, while energy prices fell 0.9%.