According to a report released by the bank on Tuesday, year-on-year inflation for the month of March was 9.56 percent, dropping 0.57 percentage points from February. The report stated that bad weather in February led to increased vegetable prices, but that the effect of this was partially shaken off in March and led to the slight decrease in inflation.
When removing energy, unprocessed food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco from the indicator, inflation was 5.01 percent. When also removing processed foods, the number rises to 5.41 percent. These figures, which are on average more than 1 percent higher than the figures in February, reached these levels due to the low base that came about due to the tax cuts implemented last year to stimulate the economy.
According to the report, March saw a 0.43 percent increase in prices of goods and a 1.03 percent increase in prices of services from February. Compared to March of last year, these prices increases amount to 10.47 percent and 7.01 percent, respectively. Telephone sector prices also increased, according to the report, leading to an increase in the services sub-category despite the fact that mobile and landline operators have been aggressively marketing their decreased prices.
Inflation will start to decrease in the last quarter of the year, the central bank said, but will go through a series of “waves of increases and decreases” before establishing a clear downward trend in the last quarter.
