Food price inflation in Spain eases to 1.8% in September, the lowest rise in three years

The general price index has slowed its rise to 1.5%, the lowest rate since March 2021, and better than the European Central Bank's target

Edurne Martínez

Madrid

Tuesday, 15 October 2024, 18:12

Food prices in Spain are still on a downward trend, with much more moderate rises than a year ago, the latest data shows. The rise in the price of the shopping basket was just 1.8% in September, according to the national institute of statistics (INE) figures. It is an even smaller increase than in August which marked the lowest rise since October 2021 at 2.5%, when the inflation crisis began.

Food prices rose by as much as 16.6% in February 2023, but since then began a gradual decrease to current levels. Even so, the rise is greater than that of general inflation, which in September was 1.5%, its lowest level in three and a half years. The rate fell eight tenths of a percentage point from August and improves on the European Central Bank's (ECB) price target of 2%, consolidating the end of the price crisis in Spain.

One has to go back to March 2021, just before the start of the inflationary spiral resulting from the rise of energy costs, to find such a moderate rise in prices. The fall - which is also the largest in the last year - has been driven mainly by a drop in petrol prices. Food and electricity prices have also fallen, although to a lesser extent. Leisure and culture also have an influence, with prices falling more sharply than in the same month of the previous year, according to the INE.

Fuel prices are at the levels they were before the war started in Ukraine, with electricity and food prices also benefiting. In September, core inflation - that which excludes fresh food and energy from its calculation - also fell by three tenths of a percentage point to 2.4%, its lowest rate since January 2022.

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