German inflation slows, boosting case for ECB action

Inflation in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, hit a five-year low in December, data showed Monday, turning up the heat on the European Central Bank to do more to ward off the threat of deflation, analysts said. In a preliminary flash estimate, the federal statistics office Destatis calculated that German inflation stood at just 0.2 percent year-on-year last month, down from 0.6 percent in November. Using the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) -- the ECB's yardstick -- inflati