Commerce secretary says president would determine whether to stick with the planned level in first indication it could change

Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, called the Peterson Institute’s warning that Donald Trump’s tariff plan would amount to a major tax hike on Americans as “alarmist”.

“I respect my friends at the Peterson Institute, I think they’re a bit alarmist,” Bessent told CBS News on Sunday.

This past weekend, President Donald Trump announced the largest tax increase in at least a generation (since 1993 or before), with the imposition of 25 percent tariffs on most goods from Canada and Mexico (aside from Canadian energy, which faces a 10 percent tariff), alongside a 10 percent increase in tariffs on goods from China. The direct cost of these actions to the typical, or median, US household would be a tax increase of more than $1,200 a year.

These announcements mark the first wave of tariffs expected to come from the new Trump administration. Trump has threatened the entire world with tariffs. Further, governments abroad will retaliate; both Canada and Mexico have already announced retaliatory measures. Future waves of US tariffs and retaliation will increase these substantial consumer costs alongside the other economic harms of tariffs: reduced economic growth, a shrinking export sector, and supply chain disruption. …

Amid claims that deportees may face torture, family of one man say he was forcibly repatriated and will never see his children again

The family of one of dozens of Uyghurs feared to have been forcibly deported from Thailand to China have condemned the decision as “shameful”. The deportations came despite a UN statement saying those being sent to China faced a “real risk of torture” on their return.

Thailand ignored protests by the UN refugee agency, EU and US in deporting 40 Uyghurs who had been detained in the country for a decade, claiming they had returned voluntarily “to their normal lives” with their families.

The artist was found dead at his apartment in Nice in southern France on Saturday, his publicist says

The self-taught Scottish painter Jack Vettriano, who became hugely popular despite being shunned by critics, has been found dead at his apartment in Nice in the south of France, his publicist has said.

Vettriano, who was born Jack Hoggan on 17 November 1951 in Methil, Fife, was found on Saturday, the publicist said.

“Those are all great artists. Vettriano is not even an artist. He just happens to be popular, with “ordinary people” who buy reproductions of his pseudo-1930s scenes of high-heeled women and monkey-suited men, and celebrities who fork out for the originals of these toneless, textureless, brainless slick corpses of paintings. I urge you to visit the National Gallery. Look at great paintings for a few hours. Now take a look at Vettriano. I’m not arguing with you; I’m telling you. I look at art every day and I know what I don’t like.”

Council of Europe’s Michael O’Flaherty urged leaders not to give in to populist rhetoric over migration

Europe’s most senior human rights official has said there is evidence of asylum seekers being forcibly expelled at EU borders, as he urged mainstream politicians not to concede to populists on migration.

The commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, Michael O’Flaherty, told the Guardian he was concerned about the treatment of asylum seekers at the EU’s external borders in Poland and Greece, as he warned against a “securitisation response” that goes too far.

Howard Lutnick’s remarks echo Elon Musk, who says government spending doesn’t create value for US economy

• US politics live – latest updates

Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, said on Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) could possibly cause an economic downturn.

“You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.”

• Partnership to continue at US tournaments this month
• Pair worked together at Australian Open in January

Novak Djokovic’s partnership with coach Andy Murray will continue at Indian Wells this week and at the Miami Open this month, the PA news agency understands.

Murray is heading out to Indian Wells, California, on Monday for the BNP Paribas Open, which starts on Wednesday, with the Miami Open following on 19 March.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Thanks to a goalkeeper they own, Bayern’s anniversary celebrations were able to be marked by a victory

Last Thursday FC Bayern celebrated 125 years of existence. When the team travelled to Stuttgart for the opening game of the Bundesliga the following night their travelling fans unfurled a glittering red tifo, composed of “27. Februar 1900” – the club’s birthdate – and the original club badge.

Despite the sense of ceremony, which will continue with a series of commemorative events in the weeks to come, and the plethora of connections they share with Stuttgart, Bayern could not have expected quite the number of presents that came their way from the hosts. Stuttgart had been “clearly the better team in the first half-hour,” as Vincent Kompany put it. It was their best performance in weeks and yet it counted for nothing as they took a pistol to their collective foot in the second half. Less than a month ago, Sebastian Hoeness – just to remind, nephew of Uli and son of Dieter - and his side were just a solitary point from fourth place and six ahead of Borussia Dortmund after winning at Signal Iduna Park. Today, they are five adrift of the Champions League places and just a point ahead of Dortmund, everybody’s favourite Bundesliga crisis club.

Fifteen years since Microsoft’s motion-sensing gaming camera was released for the Xbox 360, artists, roboticists and more are still finding new ways to use it

Released in 2010 and bundled with the Xbox 360, the Kinect looked like the future – for a brief moment, at least. A camera that could detect your gestures and replicate them on-screen in a game, the Kinect allowed players to control video games with their bodies. It was initially a sensation, selling 1m units in its first 10 days; it remains the fastest-selling gaming peripheral ever.

However, a lack of games, unreliable performance and a motion-control market already monopolised by the Nintendo Wii caused enthusiasm for the Kinect to quickly cool. Microsoft released a new version of the Kinect with the Xbox One in 2013, only for it to become an embarrassing flop; the Kinect line was unceremoniously discontinued in 2017. The Guardian reached out to multiple people involved in the development of the peripheral, all of whom declined to comment or did not wish to go on record. Instead, the people keenest to discuss Microsoft’s motion-sensing camera never used it for gaming at all.

• Ratcliffe exploring move as part of cost-cutting measures
• London office deemed too large and expensive

Manchester United are exploring an early termination from a 10-year lease agreement at their London offices in Kensington in the latest cost-cutting measure proposed by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

United moved into the Kensington Building less than two years ago after the expiry of a 10-year rental agreement on another office building in Mayfair, but with Ratcliffe deciding that the vast majority of the club’s staff should be based in Manchester, the 23,000-square-foot space has been deemed to be too large and expensive.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Sanny Rudravajhala as Fulham knock Manchester United out of the FA Cup on penalties

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today; a penalty shoot out win for Fulham over Manchester United moves them one step closer to a first major trophy in the club’s history. They’ll join Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Brighton and Bournemouth in the quarter-finals who can all start to dream of a trip to Wembley.

Such a truce would determine whether Putin is ‘acting in good faith’, French foreign minister says

• Europe live – latest updates

France is proposing a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron and his foreign minister have said, as European efforts to bolster support for Kyiv accelerate in the face of uncertain US backing.

On Monday, a day after European leaders rallied around Ukraine at a summit in London, Jean-Noël Barrot said: “Such a truce – on air, sea and energy infrastructure – would allow us to determine whether Vladimir Putin is acting in good faith” and gauge his attitude to “real peace negotiations”.

As hearing opens, bank’s letter saying pair ‘did not have a close relationship’ forms focus of Staley’s challenge to FCA ban

The former chief executive of Barclays, Jes Staley, is trying to convince a high court that the bank was well aware of the extent of his ties with child sexual abuse offender Jeffrey Epstein when it sent a letter to the financial regulator claiming that the pair “did not have a close relationship”.

The argument forms part of Staley’s attempt to challenge a decision by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to ban him from senior roles in the UK’s financial sector in 2023, after its investigation found he had misled the regulator over the depth of his relationship with Epstein.

The recent wave of GOP-led bills comes as Trump becomes emboldened in orders against LGBTQ+ communities

Republicans in red states across the US have been pushing a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ measures targeting same-sex marriages with an aim of ultimately securing a supreme court ban on the federally protected right.

The recent wave of Republican-led bills targeting same-sex marriage comes amid a second Donald Trump presidency in which his administration has taken on more emboldened attacks against LGBTQ+ communities across the country, as seen through a flurry of executive orders he signed, assailing various LGBTQ+ rights.

Australia has a huge of diversity of worms on land, sand and sea such as the giant Gippsland earthworm which can stretch up to 3 metres

One of the world’s largest worms might escape notice, if not for the loud gurgling noises that can be heard coming from underground as the species burrows and squelches through its moist clay.

The giant Gippsland earthworm, a purple and pink colossus that lives in a small, wet patch about 100km east of Melbourne in south-east Australia, reportedly stretches as long as 2 to 3 metres.

• Head coach attempted head-butt, Benoît Millot says
• Incident comes as French referees threaten to ‘withdraw’

Lyon head coach Paulo Fonseca could face a suspension of up to seven months following his confrontation with referee Benoît Millot during his team’s 2-1 Ligue 1 victory over Brest on Sunday.

Fonseca was shown a red card after a review of a potential penalty for Brest – which the Brittany team were not awarded – for his “intimidating attitude”, according to Millot.

The world’s most admired democracy is being held hostage by a clique of far-right thugs. It would be a mistake to placate them

It’s not only about Donald Trump. It’s not just about saving Ukraine, or defeating Russia, or how to boost Europe’s security, or what to do about an America gone rogue. It’s about a world turned upside down – a dark, fretful, more dangerous place where treaties and laws are no longer respected, alliances are broken, trust is fungible, principles are negotiable and morality is a dirty word. It’s an ugly, disordered world of raw power, brute force, selfish arrogance, dodgy deals and brazen lies. It’s been coming for a while; the US president is its noisy harbinger.

Take the issues one at a time. Trump is a toxic symptom of the wider malaise. For sure, he is an extraordinarily malign, unfeeling and irresponsible man. He cares nothing for the people he leads, seeing them merely as an audience for his vulgar showmanship. His undeserved humiliation of Ukraine’s valiant leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was, he crowed, “great television”. As president, Trump wields enormous power and influence. But Potus is not omnipotent. America’s vanquished Democrats are slowly finding their voice. Connecticut senator Chris Murphy shows how it should be done. Don’t bite your lip. Don’t play by rules Trump ignores. When Trump tried to blame diversity hiring policies for January’s deadly Potomac midair collision, Murphy hit back fiercely.

Simon Tisdall is the Observer’s foreign affairs commentator

Authors and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

In Naomi Klein’s most recent book Doppelganger, she talks about Philip Roth quite a lot, which made me realise that though I read quite a lot of Roth as a teenager, I hadn’t read American Pastoral, which is often considered his greatest novel. So I read it and it was great – I had forgotten how funny Roth is.

• Tournament has backing but more preparation needed
• Four-team mini-tournament could take place in 2026

Fifa’s new 16-team Women’s Club World Cup could be delayed beyond its previously-proposed 2026 launch, the Guardian has learned.

The tournament is understood to maintain widespread backing within the governing body, as well as across the confederations, but discussions are ongoing regarding the possibility of the inaugural staging of the event being pushed back by a couple of years to allow more time for all concerned to properly prepare for it, according to sources.

Introduce yourself to soft, nutty, slightly sweet spelt flour, and discover how it complements these hazelnut shortbreads

Seven years ago, I walked along Oxford Street in London with the baker and writer Henrietta Inman. I can’t remember where we’d been in order to be illuminated by Foot Locker and Muji at midnight, but I do remember we talked about spelt flour. Or, rather, Henrietta did, describing its flavour as soft and nutty, and all as part of our wider conversation about her decision to leave the subterranean pastry kitchen of a five-star London hotel and return home to Dorset, where she adapted her knowledge and skill to different ingredients, resulting in her book The Natural Baker.

Back then, I knew a bit about spelt’s importance in ancient cooking (by various civilisations, including the Romans, who called it the marching grain), but I was confused as to what spelt actually was, which wasn’t helped by the translations: spelta, farro spelta, emmer, einkorn, dinkel wheat. While we crossed Regent Street and passed the many windows of John Lewis, Henrietta explained that spelt was a grass related to wheat and a cousin to farro; she also encouraged me to think less about names and more about flavour, and how it could work in pastry and biscuits. Also to try emmer, einkorn, rye and barley flour. It would take me seven years to heed her advice.

What Trump has been signaling loudly and clearly is that he gladly accepts and even encourages the acquisition of territory by force

By now, most of the world will have seen the exchange that has heralded the end of the postwar liberal order. But who would have thought that the whole thing would come crashing down with Trump saying these words: “All right, I think we’ve seen enough. What do you think? This is going to be great television. I will say that.”

I’m referring, of course, to the debacle at the Oval Office between two showmen-turned-statesmen, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The meeting began cordially. After the Ukrainian president was challenged for not wearing a suit, the US president said: “I think he’s dressed beautifully.” Trump praised a reporter from One American News for asking an obsequious question (“What gave you the moral courage and conviction to step forward and lead?”) and then, several minutes later, claimed that “I’ve stopped wars. I’ve stopped many wars. My people will tell you. I’ve stopped wars that nobody ever heard about.”

Moustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US columnist

After being diagnosed with a chronic digestive disorder, I cut out junk food and ready meals. Now, my diet is full of fruit and veg – and I’ve got my mojo back

When I got a nasty case of indigestion just before the UK-wide Covid lockdown in March 2020, I assumed it would pass in an hour. A pizza was the initial culprit, molten with cheesy goo and drenched in garlic dip. A week later, though, it hadn’t gone away and I was struggling to swallow due to a lump-like feeling in my throat.

Like any neurotic thirtysomething, I assumed I was dying, so I trotted off to the GP. After several fruitless trips to specialists and various medications and investigations, I was diagnosed with gallstones and “functional dyspepsia”, the catch-all term for acid reflux, bloating, heartburn and upper digestive tract problems with no obvious cause.

Local police investigating whether other suspects involved after residents warned to keep away from city centre

in Dublin

The Irish government has drafted legislation to remove a de facto ban on any more than 12 troops being deployed overseas as the country makes significant moves to bolster its bare and weak defence force.

European Union is a project of peace, and the project of peace means that security and defence is necessarily a priority, because peace without defence is an illusion.

…

Egypt and Qatar condemn Israel’s decision to block goods and supplies from entering Gaza, saying it violates the ceasefire deal

Mourners at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis have been attending the funeral of two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Rafah earlier today.

Just a couple of kilometres to the east, kibbutz Nir Oz has seen Israeli mourning at the funeral procession for Itzhak Elgarat, who was abducted during the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack inside Israel, whose body was recently returned from captivity.

Fiercely original and stunning live, they should have been massive – but they imploded. As the Scots return, they relive disowning their debut album, blowing Top of the Pops – and getting shocks off their battery-powered illuminated suits

Steve Mason is remembering the day in 2004 he was told the Beta Band was over. “There was enough money in the bank account to pay each of us a month’s wages,” says the singer, seated in a busy London greasy spoon. “And by that point, we were only on a grand a month. Then that was it.”

For the previous eight years, life in the band formed in the Scottish seaside town of St Andrews had been one of constant reinvention and innovation. They’d made fiercely original records and experimental films, while putting on visually stunning live extravaganzas. Their transatlantic fanbase included Oasis, Radiohead, Irvine Welsh and actor John Cusack, who’d recommended their song Dry the Rain for a now-famous scene in High Fidelity. Playing a record store assistant, Cusack announces: “I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by the Beta Band.” He then puts the CD on and the shopppers nod their heads to Dry the Rain.

The latest in our series of writers paying tribute to all-time comfort classics is a recommendation of a 2001 Bollywood favorite

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon and you’ve just had a hearty lunch. You’ve settled in with the family for a little siesta and you put something comforting on TV – something that is cosy, reachable and the perfect companion to the wonderful feeling you’re wafting on. A giant bear hug that envelopes you and hits the sweet spot.

That is what Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham evokes for me. I know every scene, every line, every lyric in this three-and-a-half-hour sappy, emotional juggernaut that makes me feel all the feels – happy, sad, upset, hopeful, nostalgic. Karan Johar, the director of the movie, created a spectacle where the characters may be larger than life, but are relatable in the most basic of ways.

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo started by shaping one clay head in 2009. Now thousands are displayed at the Nykyinkyim Museum, each representing an African who was lost to slavery

• Photographs by Keelson Studio

At the end of a sandy path, lined with bamboo trees, lies a clearing with thousands of clay head sculptures. One is of a woman whose hair is half done, another shows a man blindfolded. Some heads have masks signifying royalty. In a small pond are dozens more sculptures, some with shackles round their necks.

Each head placed at the Nykyinkyim Museum in Ghana represents someone who was enslaved and taken from the continent of Africa by Europeans to face a life of struggle, brutality and death.

Clay head sculptures lie in water at the Nykinkyim Museum in Ada, Ghana. Each one represents someone who was enslaved

My husband – like many others – is obsessed with the ‘seasoning’, cleaning and pH levels of these hefty, hulking pans. Must I tolerate it?

I need some guidance on a tiny source of friction in my home life. It is this: I live with a pan man and his man pans.

You know the kind I mean: rugged, elemental pans that you need to bench 160kg to lift; apocalypse-proof pans. Cast-iron and carbon-steel cookware isn’t exclusively a male preserve – female cookery writers and chefs are enthusiastic; I have heard it described as “tradwife adjacent” – but if the Marlboro Man cooked his horse, he would do so in these. Paradoxically, man pans are as delicate as they are tough: they need to be “seasoned” (an arcane ritual), massaged with oils, protected from humidity and low-pH substances. They invite boring fanaticism (if podcasts made pans, it would be these), becoming a shorthand for a certain kind of man; in one Instagram skit, a pan fanatic castigates his bored housemates for wrecking his skillet’s seasoning, reeling off the pH of blueberries (“2.2”), jackfruit (“4.1”) and Lucky Charms (“You’d never guess it: 1”).

As the 88-year-old master of minimalist composition releases a career-spanning 27-disc box set, he will take on your questions about his life and work

At the age of 88, Steve Reich has had a long lifetime of artistic brilliance, harnessing power through repetition and minimalism – and as he releases a career-spanning box set, he will be answering your questions.

Born in 1936, Reich (pronounced “rysh”) is one of the greatest living American composers, who after passing through a series of esteemed colleges – Cornell, Juilliard, Mills – began producing a series of works from the mid 1960s onwards that were methodical, even mathematical in their arrangements, but which became transcendent experiences for audiences.

New York-listed Capri could reportedly agree to sell the brand back into Italian ownership this month

Prada is in talks to buy the Versace fashion brand from the US investor Capri Holdings for a price that could reportedly reach nearly €1.5bn (£1.2bn).

Milan-based Prada and the New York-listed Capri could reach a deal for Versace this month, Bloomberg reported, although the talks could still fall apart.

We’d like to hear from parents and teachers who’re introducing AI to younger children and find out how they’re instructing them how to use it

Across the world since the release of ChatGPT, we have seen younger and younger people make use of artificial intelligence chatbots and image generators for their schoolwork and their lives at home. First, students in universities adopted AI, then teenagers in secondary schools, often with their parents unaware of it. Now, we’d like to know how the youngest among us are learning about AI.

AI companies typically prohibit children under 13 from using their products in terms of service agreements. Some parents and teachers, however, are introducing ChatGPT and other AI to their children and their students in the hopes that an early familiarity with the technology will prepare them to succeed in the future.

Mohammad Javad Zarif implies move was endorsed by supreme leader, as his exit sends stock market into a tailspin

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s most prominent reformist, has resigned from the government, saying he had been instructed to do so by an unnamed senior official.

He implied the move was endorsed by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, although he did not name him in his resignation letter as he stepped down as vice-president for strategic affairs.

UN-commissioned study in UK, US, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand finds satisfaction rises with age

For more than half a century, the midlife crisis has been a feature of western society. Fast cars, impulsive decisions, and peak misery between the age of 40 and 50. But all that is changing, according to experts.

In a new paper commissioned by the UN, the leading academics Jean Twenge and David Blanchflower warn that a burgeoning youth mental health crisis in six English-speaking countries worldwide is upending the traditional pattern of happiness across our lifetimes.

An egregious non-call in the ninth round allowed Tank Davis to avoid a knockdown, altering the course of his title fight against Lamont Roach Jr on Saturday night

An egregious non-call by referee Steve Willis allowed Gervonta Davis to salvage a draw on the judges’ scorecards in Davis’s WBA 135lb title defense against Lamont Roach at Barclays Center on Saturday night.

Davis (now 30-0-1, 28 KOs), has been fighting professionally for 12 years. At age 30, he’s an elite fighter with a fervent fanbase that includes 7.6m followers on Instagram. He has yet to permeate the consciousness of mainstream sports fans. But for his admirers, every Gervonta Davis fight is a happening. Davis v Roach set the all-time event attendance record in the history of Barclays Center. The sold-out crowd of 19,250 engendered the arena’s second-largest gross ever, eclipsed only by the Rolling Stones.

Trump cutting off USAid reminds us how much power we surrender to those who fund our work. We need a new mindset

About 35 years ago, the radio news announced that the then president of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, had broken diplomatic ties with Norway. The embassy, with about 100 foreign and a few local staff, had one week to clear out of the country.

I was one of a few staff there at the time who worked for the Norwegian development agency, Norad, and our jobs disappeared with that radio broadcast. An estimated $30m annual budget, largely targeted at the arid and semi-arid parts of Kenya, also disappeared. Obviously that did not matter much to Kenya’s leadership, who felt that the independence of the country and the ability for them to decide what was good for Kenya, was more important.

After spending four years meeting people all over the country, Vicky Roy’s new book, Everyone is Good at Something, contains 100 inspirational life stories to raise awareness and combat taboos

• Photographs by Vicky Roy

For Bikram Bhattarai, getting to school meant being carried by his father, Narpati, across the hilly terrain of Gangtok in the north Indian region of Sikkim. The half-hour journey each way was especially treacherous when the rains came and Bhattarai, who was born without arms, sometimes had to ask classmates to help carry him, too.

Now in his twenties, he is at college studying history and enjoys writing poetry and listening to rappers including Eminem and Nepal’s Yama Buddha. But his true passion is art, he says, as he shares a sketch of an open palm holding a butterfly, drawn with his feet.

Bikram Bhattarai, a college student from Gangtok in Sikkim who was born without arms, loves art and has taught himself to draw with his feet

It was a deeply unpredictable year – and Conan O’Brien, Adrien Brody and Timothée Chalamet all pulled out the antics

• Anora dominates the Oscars. Here is the complete list of winners and photos from the red carpet

At the 2003 Oscars, Adrien Brody – who had just become the youngest best actor winner for his turn in The Pianist – planted an unplanned kiss on Halle Berry, the award’s presenter. The moment has stirred controversy in recent years, but the pair warded off any untoward discourse by recreating their lip-locking stunt at this year’s ceremony. Berry greeted Brody on the red carpet with a warm embrace before the pair smooched for the cameras. “Tonight I had to pay him back,” Berry told Variety. “He deserved that.” The academy, meanwhile, called it “a reunion 22 years in the making”.

Share your recent photos and tell us where you were and why that scene resonated with you

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Internazionale still top the table after draw but leveller restores belief that Antonio Conte’s side can reel in leaders

Billy Gilmour or Philip Billing? That was the dilemma facing Antonio Conte for a season-defining fixture: his second-placed Napoli taking on the Inter side who had just overtaken them with 12 rounds to go. Should he trust in a midfielder who had started only five Serie A games since arriving from Brighton last summer, or one who spent the first half of this season as a backup at Bournemouth?

“I’ve been thinking about it all week,” Conte said with a chuckle at his pre-game press conference, “and I still have 24 more hours to decide.”

German stock market records biggest gains after Starmer announces ‘coalition of the willing,’ as investors expect big splurge in defence spending

Eurozone inflation has dipped, moving closer to the European Central Bank’s 2% target, ahead of a widely expected drop in interest rates at the central bank’s meeting on Thursday.

Headline inflation fell from 2.5% to 2.4% in January, while core inflation, which strips out volatile energy and food costs, dropped from 2.7 to 2.6%, Eurostat said this morning.

After quite a strong January reading, February eurozone inflation came in soft. Core inflation ticked down after having been stable at 2.7% since September.

The weak economic environment seems to trump an increase in reported input costs for the moment. For the European Central Bank, this is a dovish sign as the governing council mulls over how low it should bring rates.