Food price hike increases inflation in March

The year-on-year change in consumer prices was 0.8 per cent in March, according to Statistics Finland.

In February, inflation stood at 0.6 per cent. The slight increase in inflation from February to March was caused primarily by a rise in the price of food.

Consumer prices were raised most in March by increases in the prices of cigarettes, the vehicle tax, rents and hospital fees from one year ago.

The rising of consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of children’s day care, second-hand passenger cars, games of chance, mobile telephones and petrol.

From February to March, consumer prices changed by 0.2 per cent, which was mainly caused by risen prices of clothing.

Each mid-month, Statistics Finland's interviewers collect altogether around 50,000 prices on nearly 470 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets for the Consumer Price Index. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.

According to preliminary data, inflation in the euro area was 1.4 per cent in March.