In March, inflation rose to 7.6 percent, up marginally from 7.5 percent in February. Inflation fell across several commodity groups, including: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 7.3 percent to 7.1 percent); health (from 7.5 percent to 7.4 percent); education (from 4.8 percent to 4.7 percent); and restaurants and hotels (from 9.3 percent to 8.5 percent). However, these declines were more than offset by increased inflation for alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 12.2 percent to 13.3 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 4.9 percent to 5.0 percent); and transport (from 10.9 percent to 11.0 percent). Inflation was unchanged for clothing and footwear (6.0 percent), furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance, (5.5 percent), communication (0.6 percent), recreation and culture (5.6 percent), and miscellaneous goods and services (1.2 percent).

Both the trimmed mean measure of core inflation and inflation excluding administered prices also increased, rising from 7.2 percent to 7.3 percent and from 6.9 percent to 7.0 percent, respectively.