Food prices have been rising non-stop for months. Food, together with electricity, has been the protagonist of the increase in inflation last February. Specifically, the CPI has risen one tenth compared to the previous month to stand at 6% in February, in year-on-year terms, as announced today by the National Statistics Institute (INE). But one of the most relevant data is that the price of food has skyrocketed to reach an increase of 16.6%, a percentage never seen in the historical series. The biggest rises are in sugar, butter, olive oil or milk, but the list of products is quite long.
The VAT reduction applied by the Government seems not to have been enough to stop the escalation of prices, despite the fact that some experts assure that food would have increased up to a point and a half more if it had not been applied, standing at 18.1% . Overall, food and beverages have become more expensive by 16.6%, more than one point above that of January this year. This is a record rise in the price of food, since in more than twenty years there had not been such an abrupt increase in the cost of the shopping basket.
Among the foods in which a greater rise has been observed are sugar (with an increase of 52.6%), butter (39.1%) and milk, both whole (33.2%) and skimmed (33 ,1%). In December, the Government approved the VAT reduction on basic foods such as bread, milk, eggs or potatoes (from 4% to 0%) and on oil and pasta it was also cut in half (from 10% to 5%).
Although the measure was noted in January, it seems that the prices of these foods rebounded in February and increases were registered again. Eggs have become more expensive by 28%, oil by 33.5% and potatoes by 21%. But they are not the only products that have risen in price, there are also sauces and condiments (33.8%), yogurts (21.4%), cheese (19.8%), bread (12.2% ) and other bakery products (28.3%), flour (26.2%), rice (21.2%) or pizza (22.3%).
The cost of other basic foods such as legumes and vegetables have also increased, up to 23.6% if they are fresh and 18.5% if they are frozen. Fruit and nuts, by comparison, experience much lower growth, 5.6% and 4.8%, respectively.
In the case of meat, the one that has shot up the most is pork (15.4%), although it is also significant for poultry (14.3%) and beef (13.7%). Baby food also registered a considerable increase, reaching a 23.5% increase in cost. This increase in the cost of living is due, in part, to the consequences that are still being felt by the energy bill and the war in Ukraine.
That the price increase stood at 16.6% last month means that, if in February 2022 we had made a purchase worth 100 euros, that same purchase, with the same products, would now cost us almost 17 euros further. The rise, obviously, is not given equally in all foods.
The CPI annual rate on food is an overall average of how much costs have risen in that period. This means that some products may have become much more expensive, others not so much, or some may even be cheaper now. In the data released by the INE, it is also observed that catering and leisure have become more expensive by 7.9% and 3.2%, respectively, compared to February of last year.
