YEREVAN, April 16. / ARKA /. Inflation across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro fell for the third month running in March to its lowest level in nearly three years, RBC said citing official figures.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said consumer prices in the eurozone were up 1.7 percent in March from the year before, its lowest rate since August 2010 and down from 1.8 percent in February. Weaker energy price inflation was one of the main reasons behind the fall.

The decline in inflation in March was widely expected, though some economists were anticipating a bigger drop to 1.6 percent, as prices continue to be weighed down by the recession and high unemployment, which, among other things, keeps a lid on wages and consumer spending.

The lowest inflation in March was in Greece (-0.2%), Latvia (0.3%), Sweden (0.5%), while the highest was in Romania (4.4%), Estonia (3.8%) and the Netherlands (3.2%).  -0-