Eurozone inflation was unchanged in July for the third month running at an annualised 2.4 percent, still well above the European Central Bank's core target, EU data showed on Tuesday, July 31, AFP said.

The figures from the Eurostat agency marked the 20th consecutive month that inflation came in above the ECB's medium-term inflation target of just below but close to 2.0 percent.

Analysts, though, said the trend going forward would be downwards, London-based Jennifer McKeown of Capital Economics maintaining that "energy inflation is likely to fall again before long and core inflation will be pulled down by the deepening recession."

She added, two days ahead of a key meeting at the European Central Bank, that "the still-high rate of inflation need not prevent the ECB from taking further action to try to pull the region out of recession this week or after."