FxWirePro: Daily Commodity Tracker - 21st March, 2022 
Consumer prices in the euro zone ticked higher in July, buoyed by surging food prices, although overall price indices still fell in 12 of the 19 member states.
Euro zone prices rose 0.2 percent year-on-year, confirming its initial estimate of two weeks ago, data released by statistics agency Eurostat showed Thursday. Month-on-month, prices fell 0.6 percent from June. The annual rate remained well short of the European Central Bank's target of just below 2 percent.
Further, core inflation, which excludes the most volatile components of unprocessed food and energy, was unchanged at 0.8 percent in July. The narrower inflation indicator, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco products, rose an unchanged 0.9 percent. Both were the same as initial estimates.
Also, energy prices fell heavily again in July, by 6.7 percent after a 6.4 percent annual drop in June and 8.1 percent recorded in May. Month-on-month, they were 1.0 percent lower.
Prices for services, the biggest component of the euro zone economy, rose 1.2 percent year-on-year, but the biggest increase was in food, where unprocessed foodstuffs rose 2.9 percent year-on-year in July, nearly double the 1.5 percent seen in June.
Prices in Spain and Italy continued to decline over the year with prices in the Netherlands falling 0.6 percent over the year from 0.2 percent previously, but the Belgian inflation rate increased to 2.0 percent from 1.8 percent.
However, smaller economies in the east continued to lead the dozen euro zone states which posted negative annual rates in July, notably Bulgaria and Croatia, where prices fell 1.1 percent on the year, and Slovakia, where they were down 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, Belgium, with inflation of 2.0 percent, and Sweden, with 1.1 percent, led those economies where prices rose.
