The euro-area inflation rate unexpectedly fell in January on slowing price growth for energy and services. The annual inflation rate dropped to 2 percent from 2.2 percent a month earlier, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. Economists had forecast the rate to remain unchanged, according to the median of 39 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The European Central Bank will leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.75 percent next week, economists forecast in a separate Bloomberg News survey. The central bank sees inflation at 1.6 percent this year and 1.4 percent in 2014. The euro-area economy has shrunk for two successive quarters and economists foresee a further decline in gross domestic product in the final three months of last year. The ECB estimates contractions of 0.5 percent and 0.3 percent in 2012 and 2013. The ECB this week said lending to households and companies shrank for an eighth month in December. Energy prices increased 3.9 percent in January after a 5.2 percent gain a month earlier, today’s report showed. Prices of food, alcohol and tobacco rose 3.2 percent, the same as in December, while the cost of services rose 1.7 percent after a 1.8 percent gain. To contact the reporter on this story: Angeline Benoit in Madrid at abenoit4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net

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