In February, headline inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), declined for the second successive month, to 8.2 percent from 8.8 percent in January. Inflation fell for the following commodity groups: alcohol and tobacco (from 5.5 percent to 5.3 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 9.9 percent to 9.7 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 9.4 percent to 9.1 percent); transport (from 14.7 percent to 11.6 percent, as the effect of the February 2011 increase in fuel prices fell away); and recreation and culture (from 7.2 percent to 6.9 percent). In contrast, inflation rose for clothing and footwear (from 9.5 percent to 9.6 percent); health (from 6.1 percent to 6.3 percent) and restaurants and hotels (from 8.3 percent to 8.4 percent), while it remained unchanged for food and non-alcoholic beverages, communication, education and miscellaneous goods and services at 8.9 percent, -5.4 percent, 6.3 percent, and 4.1 percent, respectively.

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation declined from 8.1 percent in January to 7.8 percent, while inflation excluding administered prices was unchanged at 7.2 percent.