MADRID - European Central Bank Vice-President Luis de Guindos welcomed on Friday a somewhat more positive reading of inflation in the euro zone in November and said prices had already started to slow down.

His comments came after inflation in the euro zone eased far more than expected in November, raising hopes that sky-high price growth is now past its peak and bolstering, if not outright sealing, the case for a gentler ECB rate hike.

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; additional reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Andrei Khalip)