Eurozone inflation rose in December as energy prices slightly ticked up, official data showed Tuesday, which experts said will likely push the European Central Bank to pursue its rate-cutting cycle more cautiously.

Consumer prices picked up to 2.4 percent last month, as predicted by analysts for Bloomberg and financial data firm FactSet, and up from 2.2 percent in November.

Core inflation -- which strips out volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices and is a key indicator for the ECB -- was stable at 2.7 percent.

The ECB is still expected to cut interest rates at the next monetary policy meeting on January 30, but with price pressures still present in the eurozone it will need to tread carefully despite the signs of economic weakness, analysts........

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