Rising electricity and fuel prices drive inflation to 40-year record

The Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) released detailed data for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October on Friday, showing a year-on-year rise of 5.4%, the highest since September 1992.

The result of the detailed calculation reduces by one tenth the result of the 5.5% that had been advanced 2 weeks ago, but the increase in inflation is increasingly hard for many families to bear when winter is close to begin. Especially due to the rise in prices of basic necessities such as electricity (62.8%), liquid fuels (57.1%) and gas for heating (11.3%).

Nearly all groups of goods and services contributed to the rise in inflation in October: housing (which includes expenses for supplies such as electricity, gas and diesel for heating) rose 20.5% year-on-year; transportation (also influenced by the price of fuel) rose 12.3%.

The price of the services of hotels, cafes and restaurants rose 2%, while those of leisure and culture increased by 1.5%. Only communications were cheaper compared to a year ago, with a variation of –0.5%.

The annual inflation rate increased in all Spanish regions in October compared to September. The greatest increase occurred in Castilla-La Mancha, with a rise of 1.7 percentage points (up to 6.5%). For their part, Cantabria and the Canary Islands registered the lowest increase, with a rise of one point.

Largest monthly increases

In monthly terms, prices rose 1.8% in October, a rate that well illustrates their acceleration compared to September, when they had risen 0.8% compared to August. The rise in August compared to July was 0.5%.

In October, the largest monthly increase (12.6%) occurred in the category of clothing, partly due in part to the arrival of autumn.

Electricity prices increased 10% month-on-month, diesel 5% and gasoline 2.9%.