The PPI measures the cost of a basket of goods needed by a typical commodity producer, and measures inflation at factories, mines and farms.

"This rate is 1.1 percentage points lower than the corresponding annual rate of 8.3 percent in February 2012," the agency reported.

The lower annual rate was driven by decreases in inflation in mining and quarrying, petrol and coal products, food at manufacturing, agriculture, other manufacturers, chemical products, tobacco, and basic metals.

The decreasing rate of inflation was partially counteracted by increases in apparel, electricity and non-metallic mineral products.

Producer price inflation (PPI) was much lower than expected, with a consensus forecast from Bloomberg expecting it to have eased to an annual rate of eight percent.

Without holding too much reliance on monthly numbers, the perceptions surrounding easing inflation won't help commercial property managers, as operating costs are significantly higher and pressure to try and increase rentals and escalations will mount.

On the positive, vanilla type funding interest rates are unlikely to increase in the forseeable future and in theory this makes development and acquisitions more feasible; the former particularly given competitive construction costs, though in practice the dearth in supply of suitable stock and competition poses yield challenges.

This definitely plays into the hands of those with upgrade and refurbishment opportunities.