Eurozone annual inflation fell sharply to 6.9% in March and that of the European Union (EU) slowed to 8.3%, according to data released today by Eurostat.
In the eurozone, inflation fell either from 7.4% in the same period or from 8.5% in February.
In the EU, annual inflation fell compared to February (9.9%), but remained above the same period (7.8%).
According to the EU’s statistical service, the largest contribution to annual inflation in the euro area in March came from the food, alcohol and tobacco sectors (3.12 percentage points, pp), followed by the services sector (+2.10 pp ). industrial goods excluding energy (+1.71 pp) and energy (-0.05 pp).
The lowest inflation rates, as measured by the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), were recorded in Luxembourg (2.9%), Spain (3.1%) and the Netherlands (4.5%), while the highest were observed in Hungary (25 .6%), Latvia (17.2%) and the Czech Republic (16.5%).
Compared to February, year-on-year inflation fell in March in 25 Member States and rose in Slovenia and Malta.
At 8%, Portugal recorded the fifth highest year-on-year inflation rate as measured by the HICP, the indicator used for comparisons at the European level, compared to 5.5% in March 2022 and 8.6% in February.
Inflation in the Eurozone started to accelerate in June 2021, mainly due to the rise in energy prices, reaching record levels since November 2021, peaking at 10.6% in October 2022, with the first pullback recorded last November .
Source: DN
