Price stability

Members of the Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet this week to decide on the key interest rates, as the decision is due on April 27.

Last month, the bank kept the policy rate (one-week repo auction rate) unchanged at 8.5 percent.

The price of food in the U.K. rose at the fastest pace in 45 years last month in, keeping inflation above 10 percent for a seventh straight month amid a cost-of-living crisis that has fueled a wave of strikes by government workers.

Inflation in the eurozone slowed more sharply than expected in March but food prices jumped even as energy costs eased, official data showed on March 31.

Consumer prices rose by 6.9 percent on an annual basis, down from 8.5 percent in February, according to the European Union's statistics agency.

Failing to reflect a slight drop in the euro area, the annual inflation rate in Slovenia picked up by another 1.2 percentage points in March to reach 10.5%. The rate's increase equals the impact stemming from a 49% year-on-year increase in electricity prices as price mitigation-measures introduced a year ago were partly scrapped.

Japan's consumer prices rose 3.1 percent in February from a year earlier, slowing from the four-decade highs seen in previous months, government data showed on March 24.

The figure, which excludes volatile fresh food, met market expectations and comes after the government introduced relief measures for soaring energy bills.

Türkiye's Central Bank on March 23 kept its key policy rate unchanged after lowering it in February.

The bank kept its policy rate stable at 8.5 percent after cutting it by 50 basis points in February in order to support economic activity in the aftermath of the earthquakes that hit the south of the country.

The Central Bank has said that under the inflation targeting regime, the medium-term inflation target of 5 percent set jointly with the government has been maintained.

Harmonized inflation in Greece "fell" to 9.8% in October, according to Eurostat data. At the same time, the consumer price index in the eurozone increased by 10.7%, setting a new record.

The Central Bank has lifted its end-2022 inflation forecast from a previous 60.4 percent to 65.2 percent.

The bank also increased its estimate for end-2023 from 19.2 percent to 22.3 percent but kept the forecast for 2024 unchanged at 8.8 percent.

German annual inflation accelerated in September to 10%, hitting the highest level in more than 70 years, according to final unrevised data from Germany's official statistics agency Destatis.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.9 percent in September from August, when it rose 0.3 percent, marking the strongest monthly gain since March, when it jumped 2.5 percent.