Cyprus inflation rate drops to 1.1% in March

The impact of the Cyprus economic crisis, in which the banks were closed for nearly two weeks from March 16th and bakeries slashed prices of bread and milk to support the desperate seems to have shown up in March inflation figures.
Prices rose by 0.7% over the previous month, mainly owing to an 8.6% rise in prices of clothing and footwear items, which had fallen compared with the previous month by 0.1% in February and 20.7% in January.
The Statistical Service Cystat also reported that prices rose for certain fresh vegetables and fruit. This might explain why overall food prices did not fall despite the slashing of bread and milk prices. Food and non-alcoholic prices in March rose by 0.7% over the previous month.
The trend is still downwards, however. Compared with March 2012 the inflation rate fell to 1.1% from 1.6% in February 2013 and 3.4% in March 2012.
In January-March the inflation rate was 1.5%.