Romania's consumer price inflation dropped to 6.61% on the year in March from 7.23% the previous month, below expectations, data from the National Statistics Board showed on Thursday.

The median forecast of a Reuters poll of analysts put Romanian inflation at 6.70% year-on-year, above the central bank's 1.5%-3.5% target.

Data showed prices rose 0.42% on the month in March, with food prices up 0.25%, non-food prices up 0.57% and services up 0.35%. (Reporting by Anna Banacka and Antonis Triantafyllou in Gdansk)