Overall consumer prices fell 2.1% in March compared to the same month last year, slightly more than the 2% dip in February.

This was mainly attributable to the one-off rebate of electricity charges by a power company in March and April, which had the effect of lowering the composite consumer price index by around 0.2 of a percentage point in both months.

Discounting this special factor, the CPI should have shown a somewhat narrower decline in March than in February. The underlying trend of moderating deflation should thus have been sustained.

Also contributing to the drop was a moderated increase in the price of women's clothing.  These more than offset the effect of reduced declines in the charges for package tours and meals bought away from home.

For the quarter ending March, the average monthly rates of change in the seasonally adjusted composite CPI were virtually nil.

Largest fall seen in housing prices

Housing continued to register the largest year-on-year decline in prices in March (-7.5%).  This was followed by miscellaneous services (-3.1%), durable goods (-2.8%) and transport (-0.4%).

But year-on-year increases were recorded for clothing and footwear (6%), miscellaneous goods (3.7%), electricity, gas and water (2.6%), and food (excluding meals bought away from home) (1.7%).

For meals bought away from home, costs fell 0.3%. Concurrently, the price of alcohol and tobacco dipped 0.1%.

The first quarter of this year saw a decline of 1.8% of the composite CPI from a year earlier.

For the 12 months ending March, the composite CPI was on average 2.6% lower than in the preceding 12-month period.