The Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell by 0.4% in March in relation to the previous month and by seven-tenths in interannual terms. That decline was steeper than expected and brought it to its lowest level since August 2016, according to the data published on Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Initially, INE calculated that the rate would be 0.1% in March, however, the State of Emergency and the consequent lockdown, which began on 14 March, marked the beginning of the downturn in the Spanish economy.
The product groups that saw their annual rates fall by the most were: transportation and housing. The former suffered a decrease of 2.4%, more than four points below the figure recorded in the previous month, as a result of reductions in the prices of fuels and lubricants for personal transport and, to a lesser extent, for air passenger transport, which fell in March 2020, after rising in March 2019.
