Inflation in the euro zone has increased slightly - moving from -0.6 to -0.3 percent in February. Unemployment across the bloc has fallen by 0.1 to 11.2 percent.

Eurostat reports that the number of people who are unemployed fell by 140,000 in January - this was the the third month in a row that saw a fall in unemployment.

Euro area unemployment rate at 11.2% and EU at 9.8% in January 2015 #Eurostat http://t.co/FIYzl8vL2A pic.twitter.com/QLwM9ZpnId

— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) March 2, 2015

The largest year-on-year decreases were recorded in Spain (25.5% to 23.4%), Estonia (8.5% to 6.4%) and Ireland (12.1% to 10.0%).

Over 18m people are still out of work across the currency bloc.

The lowest unemployment rates for January were recorded in Germany and Austria - both were below 5 percent. Greece and Spain have the highest unemployment rates at 25 and 23.4 percent.

Euro area annual inflation up to -0.3% in February 2015 - flash estimate from #Eurostat http://t.co/4S5qu0NtIj pic.twitter.com/c1dsimQNlh

— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) March 2, 2015

Eurostat's figures show that energy costs were 7.9 percent lower in February when compared with 12 months earlier - the cost of non energy industrial goods fell by 0.2 percent.

The ECB's core inflation measure (which excludes energy and unprocessed food components) increased by 0.6 percent year-on-year.

Details of the ECB's quantitative easing programme are expected to be revealed after the meeting of its governing council on Thursday (March 5th).