Inflation confirmed its upward trend picking up to 7.2% in March 2022, against 7% in February and 6.7% in January, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) Wednesday .
This increase is mainly due to the acceleration of the pace of price hikes of alcoholic beverages and tobacco (21% against 19.4% in February), the prices of the clothing and footwear group (9.8% against 8.9%) and the prices of the furniture, household items and household maintenance group (6.1% against 5.7%).
In March 2022, food prices rose by 8.7% year-on-year. This is mainly due to the rise in prices of eggs by 22.2%, olive oil by 20.6%, fresh fruit by 18.9%, poultry by 14.1%, milk and cheese by 8.8%, fresh fish by 8.6% and grain by-products by 7%.
Meanwhile, the prices of dried fruit fell by 4.3% over the year.
Prices of manufactured goods and services were up by 8.4% over the year, due to a 4.1% increase in the prices of pharmaceutical products, 11.2% in those of building materials, 9.8% in those of clothing products and 5.9% in the prices of household cleaning products.
For services, prices jumped by 4.7% over a year, driven by a 7.1% increase in prices for restaurants, cafés and hotels, a 4.1% hike in the prices of health services and a 4.4% rise in the prices of rents.
Consumer prices up by 0.8% in March 2022
Consumer prices edged up by 0.8% in one month in March against 0.3% in February and 0.7% in January.
This rise is mainly due to the increase in food prices by 1.1%, prices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco by 1.4%, prices of clothing and footwear by 1.3% and those of transport goods and services by 1%.
In monthly variation, food prices grew by 1.1%, mainly due to the increase in the group “mineral waters, soft drinks and fruit juices” by 2.7%, prices of beef and veal by 2.3%, prices of fresh vegetables by 2.2% and prices of grain products by 1.3%.
In March, prices of clothing products also rose by 1.3% due to the increase in prices of clothing articles by 1.4%, shoes by 1.2%, fabrics by 1.3% and miscellaneous accessories by 1.4%.
Prices of transport goods and services went up by 1%, mainly due to the 1.8% rise in prices of vehicle expenses, following the implementation of the new fuel tariffs.
