Brussels: Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office, announced Tuesday that inflation in the Eurozone rose to 2.2 percent year-on-year in November, moving further away from the European Central Bank's target of 2 percent.

According to Qatar News Agency, this slight increase in inflation is mainly attributed to the unfavorable performance of energy prices, which fell by only 0.5 percent in November, compared to a 0.9 percent decrease in October.

Service prices edged up slightly to 3.5 percent, compared with 3.4 percent the previous month. Core inflation, adjusted for swings in energy and food costs and regarded by experts as a stable benchmark, held steady at 2.4 percent year-on-year across the 20 countries that share the common currency.

These figures should prompt the European Central Bank (ECB), which meets in two weeks, to maintain its several-month pause in key interest rates, following a prolonged period of decline that ended last June.