LONDON (AP) — Official figures show that inflation across the 19-country eurozone eased back during August but remains just above the European Central Bank's target rate.

Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, said Friday that its annual headline measure of consumer price inflation came in at 2 percent, down from 2.1 percent the month before.

Despite the modest fall, inflation remains ahead of the ECB's goal of "just below 2 percent."

The ECB is bringing its bond-buying stimulus program to an end as prices have risen towards the target. However, it wants to see evidence that underlying inflation is strong before raising interest rates. According to Eurostat, core inflation, which strips out volatile items such as food and energy, remained subdued at 1 percent in the year through August.