Annual inflation in Spain dropped to 7.3% in October, initial reports show

The October rate fall is mainly due to a reduction in electricity prices, but gas is also cheaper than it was at the same time last year. Another, although less influential factor, is that many shoppers have not yet begun to buy new winter clothing because the weather has been so warm practically everywhere.

This is a preliminary figure which will have to be confirmed by the National Institute of Statistics, but it does show that prices have not risen as much as they did in the summer.

However, inflationary problems do persist as the core inflation rate (which does not include non-processed food or energy products) is still at 6.2%.

Sources at the ministry of Economy have said that the drop of a point and a half in the inflation rate in October is one of the biggest monthly reductions since Spain adopted the euro in 2002, and that since the peak rate in July (10.8%) government measures have reduced inflation by 32%.