German inflation edges up unexpectedly in June

BERLIN (Reuters) - German consumer inflation accelerated unexpectedly in June driven by higher costs for food and services, data showed on Thursday, suggesting a solid upswing in Europe's largest economy is slowly pushing up underlying price pressures.

Consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other European countries (HICP), rose by 1.5 percent on the year after an inflation rate of 1.4 percent in the previous month, the Federal Statistics Office said. On the month, prices rose 0.2 percent.

Both figures came in stronger than expected, with a Reuters poll having pointed to an increase of 1.3 percent on the year and an unchanged reading on the month.

A breakdown of non-harmonised data showed energy costs were unchanged in June while food and services inflation picked up.

The data comes only days after ECB head Mario Draghi hinted that the central bank's asset-purchase programme would become less accommodative going into 2018 as regional growth gains pace and inflation trends return after a period of falling prices.

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Joseph Nasr)