Eurozone inflation slowed to 6.9% year-on-year in March. This is clear from a preliminary Eurostat report quoted by "France Presse".
This decline was larger than expected as energy prices fell.
Inflation in the third month of the year was 1.6% lower than the annual inflation in February.
On a monthly basis, the consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.9%.
Consumer prices this month fell from 8.5% in February, although spending on food and drink continued to rise.
Analysts at Bloomberg and financial data firm FactSet had forecast eurozone inflation to fall to 7.1%.
They expect a rapid fall in inflation from the ECB
Food, alcohol and tobacco are expected to have the highest annual rate in March at 15.4%, followed by non-energy industrial goods at 6.6% and services at 5%.
Energy prices are expected to fall by 0.9%.
The core CPI, excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, was 5.7% on an annual basis, or 1.2% on a monthly basis.
inflation