Thursday ended with European stock markets going up, making up for early losses after important inflation data for the euro zone came out and was better than expected.
After falling into the red during morning trading, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed with a 0.5% gain.Food and beverage companies led the advance with a 1.8% increase, while banks fell 0.2%.
Inflation in the euro zone decreased to 8.5% in February, down from 8.6% the previous month, according to data released at 10 a.m. London time. This was more than the 8.2% that economists polled by Reuters had predicted, and it comes as some experts think the European Central Bank will raise interest rates even more than they had before.
The core rate of inflation, which excludes food and energy, increased from 5.3% to 5.6%.
Wednesday was a bad day for the markets in the region because economic data released this week gave investors pause.
Inflation in France and Spain jumped unexpectedly in February, according to data, while a German flash estimate placed the harmonised EU inflation rate at 9.3% in February, up from 9.2% in January.
