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BERLIN (Reuters) -Inflation rose in a number of German states in November, preliminary data showed on Thursday, suggesting that the national inflation rate would also increase as forecast.
In Bavaria, the annual inflation rate rose in November to 2.6% from 2.4% the previous month.
It inched up in Brandenburg to 1.9% from 1.8%, in Saxony to 2.9% from 2.8%, in Hesse to 2.0% from 1.8%, and in Baden-Wuerttemberg to 2.2% from 2.1%.
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, bucked the regional trend: inflation there fell slightly to 1.9% from 2.0% in October.
National inflation data is scheduled for release later on Thursday.
Economists polled by Reuters expect to see a second monthly rise in Germany’s harmonised inflation rate in November, to 2.6% from 2.4% in October.
Hamburg Commercial Bank economist Cyrus de la Rubia said that the states’ data confirmed expectations that inflation as a whole has risen.
“However, the surprising fall in inflation in North Rhine-Westphalia raises hopes that the rate for Germany as a whole has not risen quite as sharply as had been feared,” he said.
Investors will be watching the inflation data for Germany – and the euro zone as a whole, scheduled for release on Friday – to gauge the next steps of the European Central Bank.
The ECB is expected to cut interest rates further at its upcoming meetings, but the scale and speed of that course is unclear.
Harmonised inflation in the euro zone is expected to rise to 2.3% in November from 2.0% the previous month, according to economists polled by Reuters.
(Reporting by Rachel More and Rene Wagner, Editing by Miranda Murray and Toby Chopra)