Euro zone inflation confirmed at 1.3% in December

A higher contribution from energy costs boosted euro zone inflation in December, data showed on Friday, as the EU's statistics office confirmed its earlier estimate that consumer prices grew 1.3% year-on-year in the last month of 2019.

Eurostat also confirmed its earlier estimate that month-on-month prices in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.3%.

The energy contribution to the year-on-year index changed from -0.33 percentage points in November to a positive 0.02 points in December, accounting for the difference between the November inflation rate of 1.0% and December's 1.3%.

The contributions of other major component of the index such as food, alcohol and tobacco, non-energy industrial goods and services were little changed from November.

The European Central Bank wants to keep inflation below, but close to 2.0 percent.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)