In March, headline inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) remained at 11.7 percent, unchanged from February, with offsetting price changes across commodity groups. Upward movements in inflation were registered for food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 21.1 percent to 21.5 percent), clothing and footwear (from 7.8 percent to 9.3 percent), furnishing, household equipment and maintenance (from 10.1 percent to 11.6 percent) and restaurants and hotels (19.8 percent to 20.5 percent). Most other categories either remained unchanged or marginal declines were recorded. This was with the exception of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, where inflation declined to 41.1 percent, down from 44.6 percent in February.
The trimmed mean measure of core inflation was 10.6 percent in March, up 0.4 percent from 10.2 percent. Excluding administered prices, inflation remained unchanged at 15.8 percent