Portugal's year-on-year inflation rate stood at 2.3% in March, 0.2 percentage points higher than in February, Statistics Portugal (INE) confirmed on Wednesday. Rounded to one decimal place, the rate of change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published today by INE confirms the value of the rapid assessment published on March 28. The core inflation indicator (the total index excluding unprocessed food and energy products) posted a year-on-year change of 2.5%, up 0.4 points. In March, the change in the index for energy products increased to 4.8% (4.3% in the previous month), while the index for unprocessed food products fell to -0.5% (0.8% in the previous month), "partly as a result of the base effect related to the price increase recorded in March 2023 (monthly change of 1.5%)". In monthly terms, the CPI increased by 2% in March (nil in the previous month and 1,7% in March 2023). Excluding raw food and energy products, the change in the CPI was 2.4% (nil in the previous month and 2% in March 2023). As for the average change over the last 12 months, it fell to 2.9% (3.3% in February), and excluding unprocessed food and energy products from the CPI, the average rate of change was 3.9% (4.2% in the previous month). The Portuguese Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) recorded a year-on-year change of 2.6%, 0.3 percentage point higher than last month and 0.2 percentage points higher than Eurostat's estimate for the euro area (in February, the rate in Portugal was 0.3 percentage points lower than in the euro area). Excluding food and raw energy, the HICP in Portugal achieved a year-on-year change of 2.8% in March (2.4% in February), lower than the corresponding rate for the euro area (estimated at 3.1%). In March, the HICP recorded a monthly change of 2.3% (0.2% in the previous month and 2.0% in March 2023) and an average change over the last 12 months of 3.8% (4.3% in the previous month).