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Euro zone inflation could be 0.8 percent this year - ECB's Nowotny

Austrian National Bank Governor Ewald Nowotny prepares for a news conference in Vienna December 15, 2014. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Consumer prices in the euro zone may rise 0.8 percent this year, European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny said on Monday.

"In the euro area for 2015 we expect very low inflation rates....something like 0.8 percent, and this is headline inflation," he said in an address in Budapest, citing very strong decreases in the prices of oil and commodities.

He said central banks with political independence could always kill off inflation. "We have strong weapons against inflation. It is much more difficult against deflation," he said.

(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Sandor Peto, Writing by Michael Shields)