Lower fuel price reduces inflation slightly in March

The year-on-year rise in consumer prices was 0.6 per cent in March, according to Statistics Finland.

In February, inflation stood at 0.8 per cent. The slight decline in inflation was caused by lower prices of fuels for personal transport equipment and light fuel oil, for example.

Consumer prices were raised most in March by increases in the prices of cigarettes, refundable prescription medicines, fruits, vegetables and wireless telephone services from one year ago.

The rise in consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of light fuel oil, average interest rate on housing loans, fuels for personal transport equipment and televisions.

From February to March, the month-on-month change of consumer prices was minus 0.2 per cent, which was caused by lower prices of petrol, for example.

Each mid-month, Statistics Finland’s interviewers collect altogether 44,000 prices of nearly 470 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets to build the for the Consumer Price Index.

Price data is supplemented with scanner data including around three million food prices. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.