Euro zone inflation unchanged in November, weaker than expected

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone inflation was unchanged in November, against expectations of a slight increase, maintaining pressure on the European Central Bank to ease monetary policy further on Thursday.

The European Union's statistics office Eurostat estimated on Wednesday that consumer prices in the 19 countries sharing the euro increased by 0.1 percent in November, the same pace as in October, and by less than the 0.2 percent forecast by 45 economists polled by Reuters.

Eurostat's flash estimate for the month does not include a monthly calculation.

The main factor that capped price increases was rising was energy costs, which were 7.3 percent lower this month than a year ago. Unprocessed food was 2.6 percent more expensive.

Without these two volatile elements, the inflation measure that the European Central Bank calls core inflation, was 0.9 percent in November, down from an upwardly revised 1.0 percent in October.

The ECB's Governing Council will meet on Thursday and is widely expected to bolster the bank's one-trillion-euro plus program of quantitative easing.

It wants to keep inflation below, but close to 2 percent, over the medium term and started buying government bonds on the market earlier this year to inject more cash into the economy and make prices rise faster.

Eurostat also said on Wednesday that industrial producer prices in the euro zone were down by 0.3 percent in October compared to the previous month, and 3.1 percent lower year on year. Economists polled by Reuters had estimated slightly larger declines of 0.4 and 3.2 percent respectively.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio)

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