The prices of consumer products and services increased 0.6% in March, according to Statistics Finland. This is two tenths less than in February, when inflation stood at 0.8%.
The coronavirus crisis, and especially its effects on fuel prices, had a lot to do with this slight decrease in inflation. In March, the prices of fuels for personal transport equipment and light fuel oil, for example, became cheaper.
Consumer prices were raised most in March by increases in the prices of cigarettes, refundable prescription medicines, fruits, vegetables and wireless telephone services from one year ago.
The rising of consumer prices from one year back was curbed most by reductions in the prices of light fuel oil, average interest rate on housing loans, fuels for personal transport equipment and televisions.
Source: Statistics Finland.
Month-on-month change
From February to March, the month-on-month change of consumer prices was -0.2 per cent, which was caused by lower prices of petrol, for example.
Each mid-month, Statistics Finland's interviewers collect altogether 44,000 prices on nearly 470 commodities from approximately 2,700 outlets for the Consumer Price Index. Price data is supplemented with scanner data including around 3 million food prices. In addition, some 1,000 items of price data are gathered by centralised collection.
According to the preliminary data on the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, the rate of inflation in the euro area was 0.7 per cent in March. In February it was 1.2 per cent. The corresponding figure for Finland was 0.9 per cent in March.
The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices does not include owner-occupancy, games of chance, interests on consumption and other credits, fire insurance on owner-occupied dwellings, the vehicle tax or fishing and hunting fees. The consumption items included in this index, as well as the rules governing its compilation, have been defined by the EU.
