Underlying price pressures in the euro zone eased in March as inflationary influences fell in France, Italy and Spain, an index compiled by the Economic Cycle Research Institute showed on Friday. ECRI, which designs indices aimed at predicting business cycles in leading economies, said its Eurozone Future Inflation Gauge (EZFIG) fell to 95.5 in March from an upwardly revised 95.6 in February. "Inflationary pressures in the euro zone have eased over the past few months," ECRI said in a statement. "Thus, euro zone inflation is likely to remain subdued in the months ahead." The gauge aims to anticipate cyclical swings in the region's inflation rate and changes in official interest rate policy by measuring underlying inflationary pressures, rather than actual inflation rates. It is similar to ECRI's inflation indices for the United States, Britain and Japan