This year, after peaking in May, at 3.4 percent, the inflation rate has been decreasing. In October, prices were 2.4 percent higher than a year before. In the current environment of a weak world economy, the ECB Governing Council is expecting a further moderation of price movements.
Graph 3  Another way of looking at the data is by housing tenure. Graph 4 shows that the saving ratio has increased for those that rent, for those with a mortgage and for those that own their dwelling outright.