Headline inflation was unchanged in February at 7.5 percent. While inflation fell for food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 7.5 percent to 7.3 percent), this was offset by higher inflation for alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 12.1 percent to 12.2 percent) and furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 5.4 percent to 5.5 percent). Inflation was unchanged for other commodity groups, including clothing and footwear (6.0 percent), housing water, electricity, gas and other fuels (4.9 percent), health (7.5 percent), transport (10.9 percent); communication (0.6 percent), recreation and culture (5.6 percent), education (4.8 percent), restaurants and hotels (9.3 percent), and miscellaneous goods and services (1.2 percent).

Both the trimmed mean measure of core inflation and inflation excluding administered prices were unchanged at 7.2 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.