By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

Fifth consecutive month of decline, this time significant, of inflation for the Eurozone in March, to 6.9% from 8.5% in February according to Eurostat announcements.

Sixth consecutive month of de-escalation for the Hellas, since September inflation has only been declining. The first estimate is 5.4% which is the 4th lowest among the 20 countries for which data is available and the lowest for the country since December 2021.

Only Luxembourg, Belgium and Spain have lower inflation than our country. From the high of the year in September when inflation was at 12.1%, a decrease of more than 6.7 points is observed.

In fact, Greece has the second largest reduction in inflation behind Portugal.

The Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia remain champions, while Slovakia is also very close. The continued decline in inflation means that only 6 of the 20 countries measured now have double-digit inflation.

The new fall in inflation is mainly due to the reduction in its inflation energy which was in negative territory, at -0.9%!!!! A year ago it was at 44.3%

Only one day in March the price of natural gas exceeded €50/Mwh, while since March 14, the price of oil has been consistently below $80/barrel.

But the bad news keeps coming from the foods which follow an opposite path to that of the general index.

Month by month o inflation food breaks one record after the other reaching 15.4% for March. A record also for structural inflation – which excludes food and energy – which reached 7.5%. The upward streak continues with the inflation of services, which was at 5%.

It is now of great importance how the ECB will read the data. Inflation may be subsiding but remains more than three times the target while the food situation looks out of control. Christine Lagarde, against the background of the problems in the banking sector due to the collapse of Credit Suisse and the – temporary – shocks at Deutsche Bank, said that the ECB will not trade the stability of food for that of the financial system.

Wait until May 4th and the next meeting of the Council of Central Bankers.