Euro zone July inflation 0.2 percent, still well below ECB target

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Annual inflation in the euro zone was stable in July, the European Union's statistics office confirmed on Friday, but remained far off the European Central Bank's target.

Eurostat said consumer prices in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.2 percent in the year to July, a rate unchanged from the 12 months to June, confirming its earlier estimate.

Compared to the previous month, prices fell by 0.6 percent in July, mainly because of a decline in energy prices and milk, cheese and eggs.

Eurostat said that in July restaurants and cafes, tobacco and rents had the biggest upward impact.

Excluding the most volatile components of unprocessed food and energy - what the European Central Bank calls core inflation - prices were 0.9 percent up year-on-year but also down 0.6 percent compared to June.

Under its money-printing quantitative easing scheme, the ECB is buying government bonds and other assets to pump around 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) into the economy, aiming to lift inflation towards its target rate of just under 2 percent.

(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)