The fall in inflation stops in Spain. Prices rose 2.3% year-on-year in July, four tenths more than the previous month, according to data released this Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). With the fluctuations, a three-month downward streak is broken.
Behind the increase is the rise in fuel prices and tourist packages and softer sales than a year ago in clothing and footwear. The positive note is that electricity and gas are down.
Subjacent inflation -which does not take energy or fresh food into account- remains high and also climbs to 6.2%, three tenths more. “Inflation remains around 2%, which favors the competitiveness of Spanish companies and the gain in purchasing power of wages,” says the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Compared to its peers in the euro area, Spain registers lower rates. While inflation in the euro zone stood at 5.5% in June, the latest data known, Spain was at the bottom with 1.6%, only surpassed by Luxembourg (1%) and Belgium (1.6%). , according to Eurostat.
Prices thus stop their downward path from the maximum of 10.8% that they reached just a year ago. The escalation of the cost of living caused it to go from deflation at the end of 2020 to levels not seen in thirty years. Along the way, all kinds of measures have had to be deployed, from the reduction of VAT on certain foods, the reduction of taxes on the electricity bill, the fuel subsidy or the free train, which have had a high cost for the public coffers. “The effectiveness of the measures adopted have made it possible to reduce inflation by 8.5 points in the last year,” says Economy.
The tension does not disappear from the shopping cart. Now attention is drawn to oil, watermelon or melon, which have skyrocketed or have disappeared from supermarkets due to the impact of the drought and extreme temperatures.
War in Ukraine, food on the rise, energy at levels never seen before… The lack of control in prices that the eurozone has experienced in the last year has led the European Central Bank to nine consecutive rate hikes. The last one this same Thursday, when the entity set the general reference rate at 4.25% after another increase of a quarter of a point.
