West German consumer price inflation slowed surprisingly in January, raising speculation the Bundesbank may delay widely expected interest rate hikes.
The Federal Statistics Office said the preliminary west German consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.1 per cent in January and was up 1.2 per cent year-on-year. In December, the CPI rose 0.1 per cent over the month for an annual increase of 1.7 per cent.
Final CPI figures for January will be released next month.
Although economists had expected slower inflation due to lower energy prices, economists said they were surprised at the magnitude of the declines.
"These numbers are clearly better than expected. I don't think this is only due to oil prices," said Mr Mathias Haffner, economist at BZW in Frankfurt.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)