Inflation in the euro area dropped considerably in March 2023, and the price growth in the European Union also slowed down, a Eurostat report showed on Wednesday.

The euro area annual inflation rate was 6.9% in March 2023, down from 8.5% in February. A year earlier, the rate was 7.4%, the European Union’s statistical office said.

European Union annual inflation was 8.3% in March 2023, down from 9.9% in February. A year earlier, the rate was 7.8%, it added.

In March, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from food, alcohol & tobacco (+3.12 percentage points, pp), followed by services (+2.10 pp), non-energy industrial goods (+1.71 pp) and energy (-0.05 pp).

The lowest annual rates were registered in Luxembourg (2.9%), Spain (3.1%) and the Netherlands (4.5%), while the highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary (25.6%), Latvia (17.2%) and Czechia (16.5%). Compared with February, annual inflation fell in 25 member states and rose in two.

Croatia was among the euro area member states with double-digit inflation rates in March. Its rate was 10.5%, down from 11.7% in February.