Not surprisingly, one of the biggest factors behind the March price acceleration was fuel prices. The average price of petrol was CZK 7 higher than in February, while the price of diesel was CZK 10 higher.Fuel prices therefore jumped by a record 21.7% month-on-month and their year-on-year dynamics accelerated from 30% to 50%. This factor alone caused annual inflation to accelerate by 0.7 percentage points in March.

Energy prices, especially household gas, accelerated again. The price of electricity accelerated from 22.6% yoy to 24.7% yoy, while the price of gas accelerated from 28.3% yoy to 37.7% yoy. These factors contributed to a 0.3 percentage point year-on-year acceleration in prices, similar to last month. However, prices of goods and services for home repairs or imputed rents also continued to rise in March (16.3% from 15.7% yoy) as a result of rising prices of building materials and new home prices. The price growth in the housing category thus reached 17.6% year-on-year and is the highest since the end of 1998 (it was over 30% at the beginning of 1998). However, the Clothing and Footwear, Home Furnishings, Transport and Food and Accommodation categories are already recording their highest ever growth in the time series since 1996. These categories contributed to the acceleration of inflation further in March, see Table 1, last column. Service prices accelerated from 9.6% to 10.4% in March, while goods prices accelerated from 12% to 14.3%.

March inflation accelerated above expectations to 12.7%