This performance was mainly due to the slower growth of energy product prices and, to a lesser extent, the deceleration in prices of unprocessed food and services. In month-on-month terms, the general CPI stabilised in March (0.0%) compared to a 0.6% increase in the same month of 2016.
Energy product prices grew by 11.7% year-on-year in March, 5.1 points less than in February. The reason behind this trend is the slower growth rate of fuel and lubricant prices, which dropped from 18.5% year-on-year in February to 12.8% in March, and the slowdown in electricity prices, down by 6.4 points to 12.5%.
Food prices grew 1.4% compared to the same month in 2016, three tenths less than in February. The inflation of unprocessed foods stood at 4.3%, 1.1 points lower than the previous month, largely due to a slowdown in prices of pulses and fresh vegetables (15.4 points, to 6.8%), partly offset by higher growth in fresh fruit prices (from 7.6% in February to 10.3% in March). Prices of processed food, drinks and tobacco increased slightly in March by 0.1%, one tenth more than in February; of particular note was the performance of oils and fats which slowed their deceleration by 0.9 points to 0.7%.
Core inflation (which excludes the most volatile elements of CPI, fresh food and energy) fell by one tenth in March to 0.9%. This was mainly due to the deceleration in the prices of services by two tenths to 1.1%, in which the trend in the prices of package tourism played a significant role, dropping from 5.9% in February to 0.1% in March. This was largely due to Easter week; last year it fell in March and this year it falls in April. Meanwhile prices of non-energy industrial goods (NEIG) grew by 0.6%, the same as the previous month.
In month-on-month terms the CPI stabilised in March after the 0.6% increase recorded in March 2016. Broken down by components, energy product prices fell by 2.6%, after the 1.8% rise in the previous year, while prices of services grew by 0.2%, two tenths less than in March 2016. NEIG prices increased by 1.1%, the same as in March last year, while food prices shrank by 0.3% versus the price stability recorded in March 2016. In the food category, prices of unprocessed food posted a month-on-month drop of -1.2% (versus -0.2% the previous year), while processed food prices grew by 0.2% (versus 0.1% in March 2016).
The year-on-year constant tax CPI fell in March in all autonomous regions. The greatest drops were posted in Extremadura and Murcia (one point in each case, to 1.9% and 2%, respectively), while the smallest drop in inflation was recorded by the Canary Islands (four tenths, to 2.1%).
The year-on-year CPI at constant taxes was 2.3% in March, the same as the general CPI.
The INE has also published the harmonised CPI (CPIA) for March 2017, whose year-on-year rate was 2.1%, nine tenths lower than in February. Meanwhile, the harmonised CPI advanced by Eurostat for the Eurozone as a whole for March stands at 1.5%, five tenths below February's figure, therefore reducing the inflation differential in Spain's favour by four tenths, to 0.6 percentage points.
EFE