German inflation probably edged up in October as oil prices rose, regional data showed on today, but analysts said they did not see major price pressures emerging in Europe's largest economy.
Data from most major federal states pointed to a pan-German inflation rate of 1.2 per cent in October, up from 1.1 per cent in September. Month-on-month, prices are likely to have been unchanged, compared with a 0.1 per cent drop in September.
Germany is the second of the 12 euro zone countries to report consumer price data for October after data from Italian cities on Wednesday showed inflation there probably rose 0.1 per cent month-on-month, the slowest rate in eight months.
The Italian data indicated annual inflation at 2.6 per cent, the lowest year-on-year rate since February, analysts said.
Italy's statistics office is due to issue a first official estimate of Italian inflation on October 30th. Euro zone inflation was unchanged at 2.1 per cent in September, EU statistics office Eurostat said last week.
The European Central Bank has said it expects inflation in the euro zone to hover around its two percent tolerance ceiling for the rest of the year but ease in 2004.
ECB policymakers said today they were increasingly confident recovery was in place allowing euro zone interest rates to stay on hold, although they remained cautious about the economy's strength.