Eurozone inflation falls to five-year low

The annual rate of inflation in the eurozone fell further below the European Central Bank's target in September, and to its lowest level since October 2009. The decline is a setback to the ECB which, earlier this month, launched a series of measures designed to boost growth and start to move the inflation rate back toward its goal of just below 2.0%. It is too soon for those measures to have had an impact, but the further drop in the rate at which consumer prices are increasing underlines the severity of the threat confronting policy makers. The European Union's statistics agency said consumer prices were just 0.3% higher than in September 2013, as the inflation rate slowed from 0.4% in August. The inflation rate has now been below 1.0% for 12 straight months, according to wsj.com