Spanish 12-month inflation in March rose to 1.5 per cent from 0.9 per cent in February, official data showed last Thursday.

The figure is slightly higher than the provisional rate of 1.4 per cent issued on March 30, the National Statistics Institute said.

The sharpest rises were in alcoholic drinks and tobacco products, which were up 12.1 per cent year-on-year, and transport, which jumped 9.1 per cent as a result of higher fuel costs compared to the same month in 2009.

Spanish 12-month inflation rose 1.1 per cent in January, 0.9 per cent in December and 0.4 per cent in November.

Prior to that, the 12-month rate of inflation had been negative since March when Spain became the first country in the eurozone to report an annual decline in consumer prices due to the economic downturn and lower energy prices.

The Bank of Spain has forecast Spanish inflation will average around 1.0 per cent this year after a rise of two percentage points in the value-added tax in July.

The Spanish economy, Europe's fifth largest, has been mired in its worst recession in decades since the global financial crisis hastened the collapse of its once-buoyant property sector at the end of 2008.

The recession sent the unemployment rate soaring to nearly 19 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009, nearly twice the 10 per cent rate of the entire 16-nation euro zone.