BRUSSELS, Belgium, Aug 1, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Eurozone inflation remained stable in July, official data showed Friday, confounding expectations that consumer price rises would ease.

Inflation in the single currency area stood at 2.0 percent last month, the EU's statistics agency said, sustained in part by a smaller drop in energy prices than a month earlier.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet and Bloomberg had predicted inflation would ease to 1.9 percent, but the July figure remained in line with the European Central Bank's two-percent target.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, was also unchanged at 2.3 percent, as economists had forecast.

Energy prices, however, fell by 2.5 percent in July -- a smaller drop than the decline of 2.6 percent recorded in June, Eurostat data showed.

Meanwhile, food and drink price increases accelerated to 3.3 percent last month, after registering 3.1 percent in June.

In contrast, services price rises eased to 3.1 percent in July, from 3.3 percent in June.

Inflation has sharply dropped from its record peak of 10.6 percent in October 2022 after Russia's attack on Ukraine sent energy prices soaring.

With inflation under control, the ECB has moved to cut interest rates to boost the eurozone's sluggish economic growth.

The central bank is widely expected to keep rates unchanged at its next meeting whilst eurozone inflation is around the ECB's two-percent target.

But that could change, according to some economists, based on how US President Donald Trump's tariffs affect the European economy.

Washington and Brussels struck a deal agreeing to 15-percent customs duties on most EU goods entering the US, which could hurt the bloc's economic growth.