Eurozone inflation picked up in November because of a rise in the cost of electricity and accommodation.

Consumer prices in the 17 countries sharing the euro were up by 0.9 percent from the same month a year ago. In October the increase had been 0.7 percent.

Low inflation shows that people are not spending and companies are not investing, slowing the pace of the recovery.

At the same time, growth in wages continued to decelerate.

In the third quarter of the year salaries in the region increased at their slowest pace in three years.

Nominal hourly labour costs in the bloc grew 1.0 percent in the third quarter, following a 1.1 percent increase in the second quarter.

US inflation flat

US consumer prices were flat in November. The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index was restrained last month by declines in gasoline and natural gas prices, after slipping 0.1 percent in October.

A 1.6 percent drop in gasoline prices and 1.8 percent fall in the cost of natural gas offset increases in electricity.

In the 12 months through November, the CPI rose 1.2 percent. It had increased 1.0 percent in October, the smallest advance since October 2009.

Stripping out the volatile energy and food components, the so-called core CPI rose 0.2 percent after rising by 0.1 percent for three consecutive months.

That took the increase over the past 12 months to 1.7 percent, rising by the same margin for a third straight month.