March, the third month in a row in which Romania had the highest inflation in the EU

The inflation  annual rate in the EU dropped in March down to 2.6% from the level of 2.8% in February and one of 3.1% in January, but Romania, for the third time in a row is the country with the highest level of inflation in the community block, show the data published on Wednesday by Eurostat.In March, the EU member states with the lowest annual rates of inflation were Lithuania (0.4%), Finland (0.6%) and Denmark (0.8%). At the other end, the EU member states with the highest rates of inflation were Romania (6.7%), Croatia (4.9%) and Estonia and Austria (both with 4.1%).   Compared to February 2024, the inflation annual rate dropped in 13 member states including Romania from 7.1% down to 6.7%, was stable in four countries and increased in ten member states.IN the euro zone, the inflation annual rate dropped from 2.8% in January to 2.6% in February, and in March got to 2.4%. Similarly, the Eurostat data show that core inflation, namely what is left after eliminating the prices for volatile goods, as well as energy and food, dropped down to 3.1% in March, from 3.3% in February.   Another indicator which, besides the prices for energy and food, excludes prices for cigarettes and alcohol, dropped down to 2.9% from 3.1% in January. The core inflation is the indicator followed carefully by BCE for the drawing up of its decisions for monetary policy.In the case of Romania, the National Institute for Statistics (INS) informed that the inflation annual rate dropped in March 204 at 6.61% from 7.23% in February, as food got more expensive by 2.81%, non-food with 8.06% and services by 10.20%.According to the quoted source, the harmonised indicator of consumption prices in March 2024 compared to February 2024 was 100.45%.   The inflation annual rate in March 2024 compared to March 2023 calculated on the basis of the harmonized indicator of consumption prices (IAPC) was 6.7%.   The average rate of modification of consumption prices over the last twelve months (April 2023 – March 2024) against the previous twelve months (April 2022 – March 2023) determined on the basis of IAPC was 8.3%.   The National Bank of Romania (NBR) has revised down to 4.7% its inflation forecast for the end of this year, from 4.8% in November, and expects it to reach 3.5% by the end of 2025, according to data presented in February by Central Bank’s Governor Mugur Isarescu.