The German inflation rate dropped to a meager 0.6 percent in November, a slide of 0.2 percentage points from its steady hold at 0.8 percent from July to October, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported Thursday in a confirmation of earlier estimates.

"A lower rate of price increase than in November 2014 was last measured in February 2010, when it stood at 0.5 percent," Destatis said on its website.

The agency noted that the prolonged drop in oil and fuel prices, alongside stable prices for food items, had contributed to low November inflation.

ECB headache

The European Central Bank (ECB) has been worried about low inflation in Germany and the eurozone at large for some time. The lender aims for a rate of just under 2 percent to guarantee long-term price stability.

To reverse the current trend, the ECB has recently lowered its benchmark financing rate to 0.05 percent after pumping billions of low-interest money into the bloc's economies.

Growing worries that plunging oil prices may send the eurozone into an even worse deflationary spiral is likely to push the central bank to buy sovereign debt early next year, economists polled by Reuters said.

hg/cjc (Reuters, AFP)