Consumer prices in the OECD area rose by 2.1% in the year to March 2010, up from 1.9% in February. This small increase in inflation rates mainly reflected higher energy prices, which increased by 11.3% in the year to March, compared with 8.4% in February.

Consumer prices for food in the OECD area rose by 0.2% in the year to March 2010, a positive rate for the first time since September 2009. Excluding food and energy, consumer prices rose by 1.4% in the year to March 2010, down from 1.5% in February and from a peak of 2.4% in August 2008.



Canada was the only G7 country where the inflation rate slowed in the year to March to 1.4 % from 1.6 % the previous month. On the other hand, annual inflation rose sharply in the United Kingdom (3.4% in March up from 3.0% in the previous month) and Germany (1.1% up from 0.6%). Annual inflation rates also increased but more moderately in the United States (2.3% up from 2.1%), France (1.6% up from 1.3%) and Italy (1.4% up from 1.2%). Deflation continued in Japan where consumer prices fell by 1.1% in the year to March but were unchanged from the year to February. Annual inflation accelerated to 1.4% in the Euro area (HICP) in March 2010, up from 0.9% in February.

Relative to the previous month, consumer prices in the OECD area increased by 0.5% in March, compared with 0.2% in February. They rose by 0.5% in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, by 0.4% in the United States, by 0.3% in Italy and Japan, while remaining stable in Canada.