Prices for goods and services in the eurozone remained unchanged in October, if compared to the inflation rate recorded for the same month a year earlier, the European statistics office, Eurostat, announced Friday.

Inflation in the 19-member bloc increased by just 0.1 percent month-on-month, leaving negative territory, but providing little hope for the European Central Bank to meet its own inflation target of little below 2 percent any time soon.

Eurostat said the slight uptick in inflation was attributable to higher prices for food, alcohol and tobacco, while energy prices fell by 8.7 percent year-on-year.

Incremental drop

Eurostat also released fresh job market figures for the euro area, saying that unemployment had fallen to the lowest level since January 2012.

The bloc's jobless rate dropped to 10.8 percent in September, with the number of people out of work in the area totaling 17.3 million. Youth unemployment stood at 22.1 percent.

Germany retained the lowest jobless rate with overall unemployment at just 4.5 percent, while Greece and Spain once again recorded the highest figures with both nations logging a jobless rate of over 20 percent and youth unemployment higher than 46 percent.

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DW