Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Tuesday, December 1st, and this is your FTE news briefing.

The Eurozone's inflation rate is not exactly what it seems.

The pandemic Zoom boom continues,

and Eurozone finance ministers strike a deal

when it comes to bailout funds.

Plus, the head of the US Treasury

and the chair of the Federal Reserve

testified before the US Congress this week.

We'll explain what's in store.

I'm Mark Filipino, and we're expected to see that for the fourth month in a row, the area remains in deflationary territory.

Now, this is a headache for policy makers.

If companies and households expect prices to fall eventually,

then they're less likely to spend and invest now,

which means a slower recovery.

But the data may not be altogether reliable. That's because consumer spending is

being engaged against normal behavior. And these aren't normal times.

Valentina Romai, the FFTS economics reporter, explains.

So offices for national statistics across the Eurozone track the prices of goods and services

that consumer buy. And with them they calculate an overall price

index that takes into account how much consumers spend on each item. Prices are

updated monthly and the basket of goods and services that people buy is updated annually.

Currently we are using the spending data from 2018.

...