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5 May 2021 – Annual inflation in the OECD area increased to 2.4% in March 2021, compared with 1.7% in February. Annual energy prices rose sharply by 7.4% in March, the highest rate since October 2018. This reflected both the base-year effect with a sharp drop in energy prices in March 2020 and a contemporaneous rise in energy prices in March 2021. Food price inflation slowed slightly to 2.7%, compared with 3.0% in February. OECD annual inflation excluding food and energy increased slightly, to 1.8% in March, compared with 1.7% in February.
Consumer prices, selected areas
March 2021, percentage change on the same period of the previous year, %
Source: Consumer price indices, OECD
Graph 2 – Energy (CPI) and Food (CPI), selected areas
March 2019 – March 2021, percentage change on the same period of the previous year, %
Source: Consumer price indices, OECD
Underlying data:
- OECD, annual inflation
- G20, annual inflation
- OECD countries, contributions to annual CPI inflation by COICOP Division, current month (xlsx)
- OECD countries, contributions to annual CPI inflation, selected components, historical series (xlsx)