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In March 2023, the annual rate of inflation as measured by the HICP was 7.1 per cent, up from 7.0 per cent in February 2023.

Price changes and effects on inflation

The highest annual inflation rates in March 2023 were recorded in Food and non-alcoholic beverages (12.9 per cent), and Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (9.5 per cent). On the other hand, the lowest annual inflation rates were registered in Communication (1.3 per cent) and Transport (2.7 per cent) (Table 1).

Chart 2 depicts the impact on the annual inflation rate by the 12 ECOICOP main divisions. An impact is a measure showing the change in inflation as a result of the inclusion of an index. Such an impact takes into account both the weight and the annual rate of inflation by division.

In March 2023, the largest upward impact on annual inflation was registered in the Food and non-alcoholic beverages Index (+2.30 percentage points), largely due to higher prices of meat. The second and third largest impacts were measured in the Restaurants and hotels Index (+0.98 percentage points) and the Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels Index (+0.96 percentage points), mainly on account of higher prices of restaurant services and house maintenance services, respectively (Chart 2).

On the other hand, no downward impacts on annual inflation were registered for the month of March (Chart 2).

HICP (Malta and euro area)

This section compares the Maltese HICP with the latest data available for the euro area. In March, the annual rate of change registered by the Maltese All-items HICP was 7.1 per cent, 0.2 percentage points higher than the 6.9 per cent¹ registered for the euro area (Chart 3).

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY NSO

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