The fall in electricity prices has dragged industry prices to 12 consecutive months of declines. According to data published today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the Industrial Price Index (IPRI) fell 8.2% year-on-year in February, expanding by 4.3 points the decline recorded in January.
The decline in industrial inflation is consolidated after March 2023 put an end to a period of 26 consecutive months of increases, in which it recorded double-digit positive rates for more than 20 months. The change in the trend is attributed to the decline experienced by energy, which cut its interannual rate by 11.4 points, to -24.2%. However, the prices of gas production and oil refining rose compared to the decrease they registered in the same period last year.
Likewise, non-durable consumer goods cut their year-on-year rate by nine tenths in February, to 4.7%, the lowest since November 2021. A decrease driven by the cheaper processing and preservation of meat and the production of meat products. In contrast, the annual rate of intermediate goods increased four tenths, to -5.2%, due to the increase in the cost of manufacturing basic chemical products, compared to the decrease in prices the previous year.
Without including the effect of lower energy prices, industrial inflation closed February at 0%, two tenths less than in January. In monthly rate (February over January), industrial prices fell 2.3%, their largest monthly fall since March 2023, also due to the lower cost of energy
Also notable were the falls in prices in the manufacturing of animal feed products (-1.3%), the manufacturing of vegetable and animal oils and fats (-0.9%) and the manufacturing of meat products (-0.5%). ).
By territory, all communities presented negative rates of industrial prices. The most pronounced were those of Asturias and the Canary Islands (-28.9% in both cases), the Balearic Islands (-28.1%) and Madrid (-15.1%), while the most moderate negative rates corresponded to the Valencian Community ( -4%), Catalonia (-4.6%), Andalusia (-4.7%) and Extremadura (-4.8%).
