Eurozone inflation increased in line with expectations in March mainly due to more costly food and services, data showed on Wednesday, providing modest support to European Central Bank policymakers pushing to wind down its stimulus.

The European Union's statistics office Eurostat estimated that inflation in the 19 countries sharing the euro was 1.4 per cent year-on-year in March, up from 1.1 per cent in February. The March figure was in line with market expectations.

Even if inflation remains short of the ECB's target of near 2 per cent, its policymakers are now debating whether to end the central bank's €2.55 trillion asset purchase scheme.

Austria's ECB governing council member Ewald Nowotny said last week that the ECB would probably decide this summer to slash its bond purchases if things developed as expected, warning that it must not fall "behind the curve".

Non-processed food prices rose by 0.9 per cent, compared with a 0.9 per cent decline in February. Economists had expected an increase, reflecting a cold snap in March that drove up fresh fruit and vegetable prices.

An earlier Easter this year was likely to have pushed up prices of package holidays and accommodation in March. The services prices component of inflation was up 1.5 per cent from a 1.3 per cent increase in February.

Energy prices grew by 2 per cent, slightly down from the 2.1 per cent increase of February.

The core inflation measure, which strips out the volatile prices of energy and unprocessed food, rose to 1.3 percent year-on-year in March from 1.2 per cent in February, pointing to a more permanent pick-up in inflationary pressure.

However, another core inflation measure that many market economists look at, which also excludes the prices of alcohol and tobacco, was stable at 1 per cent for the third consecutive month.

Separately on Wednesday, Eurostat reported that unemployment in the eurozone had fallen to a new nine-year low of 8.5 per cent in February, from 8.6 per cent in January.

The total number of jobless declined in February by 141,000 to 13.9 million people.