Portugal's February inflation slows down to 8.2%

LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese consumer prices rose 8.2% year-on-year in February in a slowdown from 8.4% reported in the previous month, flash data from National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Tuesday.

Still, core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, clocked 7.2% year-on-year, up from a reading of 7.0% in January.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.3%.

Inflation has cooled off after peaking at 10.1% in October, the fastest pace of consumer price rises since 1992, stoked by soaring energy and food prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

European Central Bank (ECB) chief economist Philip Lane told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that while euro zone inflation pressures had begun to ease, the ECB will not end rate hikes until it is confident price growth is heading back towards 2%.

(Reporting by Patricia Vicente Rua and Gdansk newsroom; Editing by Andrei Khalip)