The surplus of food and fuel, the stabilization of the energy industry, and the cash market have curbed inflation in Ukraine.

In March, annualized consumer inflation slowed to 21.3% from 24.9% in February. The National Bank says that the decrease in inflation is related to a significant supply of food and fuel, a better situation in the energy sector, an improvement in inflation expectations, and a favorable situation in the foreign exchange cash market.

Although, the NBU added that the trend is also explained by the effect of the comparison base from last year. In March, the price increase of processed food products slowed down significantly (to 23.5% y/y), and the rate of growth of prices for raw food products decreased to 31.6% y/y. The price growth for non-food products also slowed down significantly (18.8% y/y). The growth rate of services cost were almost  unchanged (15.4% y/y). The rate of fuel price increase slowed significantly up to 27.9% y/y.