Greece Inflation At 17-Month Low, Industrial Output Rises For Second Month

(RTTNews) - Greece's consumer price inflation eased further in March to reach its lowest level in nearly one-and-a-half years, while industrial production expanded for the second straight month and at a faster rate in February, separate reports from the Hellenic Statistical Authority showed on Monday.

The consumer price index climbed 4.6 percent year-on-year in March, slower than the 6.1 percent increase in February. Prices have been rising since May 2021.

Further, this was the lowest inflation rate since October 2021, when prices had risen 3.4 percent.

Prices for clothing and footwear logged a double-digit annual growth of 14.4 percent. This was closely followed by a 14.3 percent rise in costs for food and non-alcoholic beverages versus a 14.8 percent gain a month ago.

At the same time, housing costs fell sharply by 10.4 percent, and those for communication dropped 1.9 percent.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices moved up 1.2 percent in March, after a 0.3 percent rise in February.

Data showed that EU harmonized inflation also moderated to 5.4 percent in March from 6.5 percent in the previous month.

Month-on-month, the harmonized index of consumer prices climbed 1.6 percent from February, when they edged up by 0.2 percent.

Separate data from the statistical office showed that industrial production expanded 5.2 percent year-over-year in February, well above the 0.8 percent recovery in January.

Among the main sectors, manufacturing production registered the biggest increase of 7.1 percent, followed by mining and quarrying output with a 6.4 percent rise.

Compared to the previous month, industrial production rebounded a seasonally adjusted 4.8 percent in February after falling 1.0 percent in the prior month.