TIRANA, April 16 /ATA/ – Albania’s inflation rate fell to 2.3% year-on-year in March 2024, significantly down from 5.3% during the same period of the previous year, the National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) said on Tuesday.

According to INSTAT’s consumer price index (CPI), the monthly CPI change in March was 0.4%.

According to INSTAT, Albania hit the lowest inflation rate since October 2021, prior to a price spike in the wake of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The country’s inflation has fallen below the Bank of Albania’s 3% target.

The annual price increase in March 2024 has been mainly driven by the furniture, household goods, and house maintenance group with its CPI rising 4.2% year-on-year, followed by the entertainment and culture group with an increase by 3.8%, the hotel, cafés, and restaurants group with 3.5 %, the -alcoholic drinks and tobacco, clothes and footwear, goods and services groups with their CPI increasing 3.3 % each.

On the other hand, the prices of transport declined by 0.3 %. Meanwhile, prices of the vegetables subgroup, including potatoes, rose 4.7%, followed by fish and seafood prices with an increase of 4.6%, milk, cheese and eggs group prices increased 4% in March.