The year-on-year inflation in the euro area it fell 1.6 points in March compared to the previous month, according to advance data published by the community statistical office, Eurostat. Thus, the CPI data passes from 8.5 to 6.9%largely due to the fall in energy prices.

Instead, the year-on-year rate of the Underlying inflationwhich leaves food, energy, alcohol and tobacco out of the calculation due to their more volatile behavior, stood at 5.7% in March, compared to 5.6% in February.

Food, alcohol and tobacco, for their part, rose four tenths of a point in that month, to situate their interannual rate at 15.4%.

The energy went from an advance of 13.7% in February to a negative rate of -0.9% in March, consolidating the trend of falling prices of energy products. Year-on-year inflation for these products in the euro area stood at 41.5% last October, 34.9% in November, 25.5% in December, and 18.9% in January.

Industrial goods, excluding energy, fell two tenths in March, to 6.6%, while services became more expensive by 5%, two tenths more than in February, according to Eurostat.

Spain, the second country with the lowest inflation

By country, Spain has the second lowest of the euro zone with 3.1%, (recording that month the first drop in core inflation since September). It is only behind Luxembourgwhere prices rose by 3% in March.

Also below the euro area average were Belgium (4.9%), Greece (5.4%), France (6.6%), Cyprus (6%), the Netherlands (4.5%) and Finland (6.8%).

Already above the average were Ireland (7%), Malta (7%), Germany (7.8%), Portugal (8%), Italy (8.2%), Austria (9.2%), Slovenia (10.4%), Croatia (10.5%), Slovakia (14.8%), Lithuania (15.2%), Estonia (15.6%) and Latvia (17.3%).