MADRID, 30 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4% in March in relation to the previous month and cut its interannual rate by more than 2.5 points, to 3.3%, its lowest value since August 2021, according to advanced data published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

This moderation in the year-on-year growth rate of the CPI places inflation at its lowest level since August 2021, when a rate of 3.3% was also registered, and means breaking two consecutive months of increases that brought the CPI to 6 % last February.

Statistics have attributed the lower growth in prices in March to cheaper electricity and fuel, compared to the rebound they experienced in the same month of 2022.

The INE includes an estimate of core inflation in the CPI data preview (excluding unprocessed food and energy products), which fell one tenth in March, to 7.5%, standing 4.2 points above the general CPI and at its highest values ​​in more than 40 years.

The First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, had already anticipated that inflation was going to moderate in March.

Sources from your Department have highlighted that the data for March is almost three times lower than that registered a year earlier, in addition to being the "lowest since August 2021."

According to Economy, the "sustained" decline in the price of electricity derived from the so-called 'Iberian exception' and the rest of the measures adopted by the Government to contain prices have been "key" factors for "Spanish inflation to be between the lowest in Europe".

The data for March must be confirmed by Statistics in the middle of next month.

In monthly terms (February over January), the CPI registered an increase of 0.4%.