Inflation slowed sharply in September in Spain to reach 1.5% year-on-year, thanks to the fall in fuel and food prices, according to a provisional estimate published Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) . This rate, down for the fourth consecutive month, is 0.8 points lower than that of August (2.3%). It brings Spanish inflation well below the 2% target set by the European Central Bank (ECB).
This dynamic can be explained according to the INE by the fall in fuel prices, in a context of falling world oil prices, but also by a decline in the prices of food products and electricity, which had increased a year ago. . Core inflation – which does not take into account food prices and which is adjusted for seasonal variations – stood at 2.4% over one year, or 0.3 points less than ‘in the month of August. The harmonized consumer price index (IPCA), which allows comparisons between the different countries of the euro zone, fell by 0.7 points, to reach 1.7% over one year, according to the public body.
Spanish inflation, which reached a record 10.8% after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the start of 2022, has been up and down for a long time in recent months – as in the rest of the euro zone. This situation pushed the Spanish left-wing government to extend the abolition of VAT on basic food products by three months at the end of June, until September 30. According to the Bank of Spain, the inflationary surge triggered by the end of the Covid-19 crisis and by the war in Ukraine has, however, been well and truly absorbed in Spain, where the rise in prices should remain close to the 2% target at over the next few months.
