Official Data: Spanish Prices Edge up in February

Spanish consumer prices crept barely higher in February, official data showed Wednesday, as deflationary concerns dogged sluggish eurozone economies.

Prices climbed at an annual rate of just 0.1 percent in February after edging up by 0.3 percent in January, according to Spain's National Statistics Institute.

The inflation figures, calculated in the same way across the European Union, showed that Spanish prices were held down by the falling cost of transport because of cheaper fuel.

February's inflation rate was the lowest since October 2013 when consumer prices were flat.

The inflation rate in Spain, which crawled out of a two-year economic downturn in the second half of 2013, remains well below the European Central Bank's target for the eurozone of about 2.0 percent.

While consumers may welcome low inflation, a broad, sustained decline in prices can lead shoppers and businesses to postpone purchases as they wait for prices to tumble even further.

At the same time, it becomes harder to finance existing debts.

The result can push an economy into a downward spiral.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde urged the eurozone this month to fight persistently low inflation, warning that it presents a looming threat to economic recovery in the region.

Eurozone inflation was 0.8 percent in February, unchanged from January, according to the official statistics agency Eurostat.

"We see the risk of prolonged low inflation way below targets -- targets being as you know just below two percent -- looming," the IMF managing director told an econonic conference in Bilbao, northern Spain.

This "could derail the recovery", she warned, adding that the Fund believed the European Central Bank still had "room to manoeuvre" to raise inflation closer to its target.