Inflation in the euro area fell to 1.8% in September from 2.2% in August, according to Eurostat's preliminary estimate. In Greece, inflation rose by 3% compared to 3.2% in August. On a monthly basis, inflation in Greece rose by 1.7%.

This is the first time that inflation in the Eurozone has been running at a rate below 2%, a target for the ECB, opening the window for accelerating interest rate cuts, something that Christine Lagarde hinted at yesterday.

Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, services have the highest annual growth rate in September (4.0%, compared to 4.1% in August), followed by food, alcohol and tobacco (2.4%, compared to 2.3% in August), non-energy industrial goods (0.4%, stable compared to August) and energy (-6.0%, compared to -3.0% in August).

The structural index, which excludes volatile energy and unprocessed food prices, was 2.7% in the euro area in September, down from 2.8% in August.

A large deceleration in annual inflation was recorded in Germany at 1.8% in September compared to 2% in August, while in France it dipped to 1.5% from 2.2% in the previous month and in Italy it was 0.8% from 1.2%.