Eurozone inflation slows for first time in a year

The eurozone's annual rate of inflation was lowered in November, the first slowdown in a year and a half. Policymakers cautioned that the worst may not be over yet.

Consumer prices in the 19 countries that use the euro as their currency increased by an annual rate of 10 percent in November, according to the European Commission on Wednesday. The rate reached a new high of 10.6 percent in October. It was 4.9 percent 4.9 percent a year ago.

After months of soaring from one high to the next, energy prices showed signs of slowing down, as stocks of natural gas in the European Union remained unseasonably high and temperatures mild.

The price of energy in the eurozone was 39.4 percent in November, a decrease from 41.5 percent a month earlier in the year. The price of food climbed by a bit, to 13.6 percent in the year through November.