In March 2017, the annual rate of inflation as measured by the Retail Price Index (RPI) decreased to 1.52 per cent, from 1.63 per cent registered in February 2017, the NSO said today.

On a monthly basis, the rate of 0.56 per cent was registered in March 2017.

The twelve-month moving average rate increased to 0.94 per cent from 0.85 per cent in the previous month.

The largest upward impact on annual inflation was registered by the Food Index (1.06 percentage points) mainly reflecting higher prices of vegetables, while the largest downward impact was registered by the Transport and

Communication Index (-0.11 percentage points) attributed to lower prices of air transport services.

The Food Index registered an overall annual inflation rate of 4.95 per cent, of which Food excluding restaurant services and take-aways registered an annual rate of 4.16 per cent, while Restaurant services and take-aways registered an annual rate of 0.56 per cent.