BERLIN, Jan 31 Reuters German inflation eased slightly more than expected in January to 3.1, preliminary data from the federal statistics office showed on Wednesday, helped by a drop in energy prices.

German consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other European Union countries, had risen by 3.8 yearonyear in December.

The drop in German inflation will fuel speculation about an early European Central Bank rate cut, but underneath a favourable headline inflation there are still enough price pressures to worry about, ING39;s global head of macro Carsten Brzeski said.

Economists pay close attention to such data as Germany and France publish their numbers ahead of expected euro zone inflation statistics on Thursday.

French data showed EUharmonised inflation falling to 3.4 in January from 4.1 in December.

It39;s unclear if this suffices to see tomorrow39;s print for the whole block coming in below consensus expectation of 2.8, said Mateusz Urban, senior economist at Oxford Economics, referring to German and French inflation data. But if so, this would raise the odds of an April ECB cut.

Euro zone inflation is expected to dip to 2.8 in January from 2.9 a month earlier, according to economists polled by Reuters.

I am now convinced that we have tamed that greedy beast, ECB policymaker Joachim Nagel said on Tuesday.

The ECB has raised interest rates by the most in the euro39;s history to bring inflation down from double digits. The bank is now expected to start…