Spain’s Inflation Rate Falls To 5.7% in December
Spain News
Published: 13 January 2023 15:47 CET
Spain’s rate of inflation (CPI) finished the year at 5.7% thanks to lower energy price increases, the country’s National Statistics Institute said on Friday.
The INE attributed the fall in slower increases to the cost of electricity, gas, and heating oil.
The figure was a touch lower than the 5.8% suggested two weeks ago, however, it was more than a whole point lower than the 6.8% registered in November.
Although the CPI has fallen significantly since its high of 10.8% in July, core inflation which strips out the cost of food and energy prices continued to rise through November, up from 6.3% to 7%.
The price of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by four-tenths, up to 15.7%. The highest since January 1994.
Items that have seen the biggest yearly change in price
Many items have seen a huge increase over the past year such as sugar (+50.6%), butter (+42.3%), milk (+37.3%), flour and other cereals (+36.8%), olive oil (+35.2%), sauces and seasonings (33.0%) eggs (+29.8%) and cheese (+22.1%).
Items that saw the biggest annual decrease were combined passenger transport (-38.7%), electricity (-30.8%), passenger trams and metro (-18.2%), bus and coach transportation (-12.4%), personal computers (-9.6%), gasoline (-7.7%) and passenger trains (-6.6%).
The second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, was upbeat on Friday acknowledging the fact that Spain now has the lowest rate of inflation of any EU country.
However, on the issue of the increasing cost of food items, Díaz said that despite the government's attempts to reduce the cost of living by cutting VAT on essential foods, it was still becoming an “impossible” task for families to afford “the shopping basket.”
The vice president pulled no punches saying that the main culprit was the “profits” of the large food companies, saying it was clear that “there is someone here who is making money.”
She said that companies "continue to swell their profits at the expense of wages and the effort of workers."
"We will see what happens in January, but a food CPI of 16% is impossible for a Spanish family," she said.
All autonomous regions saw a fall in inflation
All of Spain’s autonomous regions saw a fall in the CPI, however, the greatest falls were seen in Cantabria, La Rioja, Castilla y León, and Castilla-La Mancha, with drops of 1.4, 1.4, 1.3, and 1.3 points, respectively.
The smallest reductions were seen in the Balearics, down 0.8 points, and Madrid, Extremadura, and Asturias with decreases of 0.9 points.
Government in negotiation to increase the minimum wage
It comes as the government continues to negotiate with worker’s unions and employers on a possible increase to the minimum wage, which Díaz said would be "relevant" but declined to elaborate as to how much it would be.
CCOO and UGT unions have requested a rise of 100 euros to 1,100, while on Friday USO requested an increase of 219 euros.
Secretary general of USO, Joaquín Pérez said, "We hope that there is a follow-up of the measure of leaving basic foods exempt from VAT and the drop in prices is not diluted in the chain of intermediaries", but "the containment of food prices needs more forceful measures.”
Pérez highlighted the fact that the average wage increase had been just under half of the CPI at 2.8%, a long way off the 15.7% rise in the cost of food items.
Source
https://ine.es/daco/daco42/daco421/ipc1222.pdf
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spains-inflation-slows-ends-2022-57-2023-01-13/
https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/5092006/0/diaz-culpa-a-las-grandes-empresas-de-alimentacion-del-alza-de-los-precios-hay-alguien-aqui-que-se-esta-forrando/
https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2023/01/13/el-ipc-de-diciembre-se-situa-en-el-57-cadena-ser/
