Eurozone annual inflation down to 1.3% in August

Annual inflation in the 17-nation eurozone is expected to decline to 1.3 percent in August from 1.6 percent in July, European Union (EU) statistics office Eurostat said Friday. Before July, the CPI had risen for two months in a row in the single currency area which is suffering economic recession and is at the risk of deflation, according to official figures. The prices of food, alcohol and tobacco products were the key inflationary factor in August, which rose by 3.3 percent year on year. In the same month, prices of services rose 1.5 percent on a annual basis, higher than the 1.4 percent in July, prices of non-energy industrial goods rose 0.3 percent, compared with 0.4 percent in June, and prices of energy industrial goods decreased 0.4 percent, compared with 1.6 percent increase last month.