Oil prices might eventually feed into core inflation, ECB's Nowotny says

VIENNA (Reuters) - Core inflation in the euro zone has not increased significantly but a rise in energy prices might eventually drag it upwards, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said on Tuesday.

"Headline inflation is increasing quite substantially but core inflation not very much, so it is for the time being at least mainly due to the effects of rising oil prices, energy prices," Nowotny told a Euromoney conference in Vienna.

"Rising oil prices at the end of the day may feed through into the core inflation but this is something that might take some time," he said, adding that the Governing Council had a "rather cautious discussion" on the issue at its last meeting.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Kirsti Knolle)