According to a flash estimate from Eurostat, euro area annual inflation is expected to be 1.5% in February 2019, up from 1.4% in January.

Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, energy is expected to have the highest annual rate in February (3.5%, compared with 2.7% in January), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (2.4%, compared with 1.8% in January), services (1.3%, compared with 1.6% in January) and non-energy industrial goods (0.3%, stable compared with January).

Meanwhile, harmonized CPI excluding energy, food, alcohol & tobacco rose 1.0% y/y in February compared with an increase of 1.1% in January. Economists had expected a 1.1% increase.