OECD annual inflation slowed marginally to 2.2% in February 2020 but provisional data for March show a significant further slowdown in the Euro area, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic
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02/04/2020 - Prior to the widespread outbreak of Covid-19 among most OECD economies, annual inflation in the OECD area slowed to 2.2 % in February 2020, compared with 2.3% in January, as energy prices slowed to 2.2% in February compared with 4.7% in January.
Estimates for the OECD area in March are not currently available but Eurostat's flash estimate1 for the Euro area points to inflation falling significantly to 0.7% compared to 1.2% in February, almost exclusively driven by declining energy prices with oil prices falling by over half in March.
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1. Eurostat note: "Data collection for HICP has in many countries been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The data in this release are, for some countries and for some products, based on fewer prices observations than usual. Nevertheless, the HICP flash estimate for March is considered to be reliable. Eurostat will provide full information to users on the methodologies and approaches that are currently being developed together with the Member States to overcome expected difficulties in price collections".
Underlying data:
- OECD, annual inflation
- G20, annual inflation
- OECD countries, contributions to annual CPI inflation by COICOP Division, current month (xlsx)
- OECD countries, contributions to annual CPI inflation, selected components, historical series (xlsx)
Source: Consumer price indices, OECD
