Eurozone inflation rises to 15-month high in January

BRUSSELS – Inflation appears to be picking up across the 19-country eurozone despite super-low oil prices.

Official figures released Friday by Eurostat show consumer prices were 0.4 percent higher in January than the year before, double December's rate. January's rate was the highest since October 2014, when it was also 0.4 percent, a development that may provide comfort to policymakers at the European Central Bank.

The ECB is in the midst of a massive bond-buying program which is designed to get Eurozone inflation back toward its target of just below 2 percent.

Perhaps more encouragingly for ECB rate-setters is that the core rate rose to 1 percent from 0.9 percent. The increase in the core rate, which strips out volatile items like energy and food, suggests underlying price pressures are building.