Thanks cfreak, this was helpful.

small typo though,

my @loop_data = ();
foreach my $array_ref(@data) {
     my @inner_loop = ();
     foreach my $element (@$_) {
          push(@inner_loop,{var1=>$element});
     }
     push(@loop_data,{loop2=>\@inner_loop});
}
[download]

In the 4th line, (@$_) should read (@$array_ref).