SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE/MADRID, May 12. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.8% in April in the Canary Islands in relation to the previous month and raised its interannual rate to 5.5%, which places the islands as the autonomous community with the highest price increase in the last year, according to the final data published this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which coincide with those advanced at the end of last month.
So far this year, prices have increased by 2% and since April of last year, food and non-alcoholic beverages have increased in value by 14.7%, followed by hotels (9.9%), household goods (+6.3%) and alcoholic beverages (+5.8%) while house prices fell by 8.2%.
At the national level, the CPI also climbed eight tenths to 4.1%, due to the increase in fuel prices and a less intense decrease in electricity prices.
Inflation has not risen so much in a single month since May 2022. The Ministry of Economic Affairs has attributed the rise in the CPI to the “base effect” that involves comparing inflation in April of this year with the first months of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Despite the rise of eight tenths, the Department headed by Nadia Calviño has stressed that the data for April “is less than half” of that registered a year earlier.
Economic Affairs has stressed that Spain remains among the countries with the lowest inflation in the European Union and has defended that the measures adopted last December “will continue to help dampen the evolution of inflation.”
For its part, core inflation (excluding unprocessed food and energy products) fell nine tenths in April, to 6.6%, standing 2.5 points above the general CPI, its smallest gap since last December and its lowest level since November 2022.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has attributed the drop in subjacent inflation to the “sharp slowdown” in food prices, which registered “the biggest drop in the historical series” in a month. Specifically, according to the INE, food prices grew by 12.9% year-on-year in April, 3.6 points below the March rate and their lowest rise since June 2022.
This behavior was influenced by the cheaper legumes and vegetables and the fact that the prices of meat, bread and cereals, oils and fats, and milk, cheese and eggs increased less in April of this year than in the same month of 2022.
In the interannual rate (April 2023 compared to the same month in 2022), the foods that have risen the most in price are sugar (+49.6%); butter (+31.2%); whole milk (+27.7%); skimmed milk (+27.5%); sauces and condiments (+26.3%); cereals and derivatives (+18.2%); dairy products (+17.6%); other food preparations (+16.6%); potatoes (+16.5%), and pork (+16.1%).
In addition, many other foods registered double-digit year-on-year increases in their prices, such as mineral water, soft drinks and juices (+15.9%); eggs (+15.8%); legume and vegetable preparations (+13.3%); other meats (+12.6%); oils and fats (+12.3%); fresh legumes and vegetables (+11.2%); alcoholic beverages (+10.4%), and crustaceans, molluscs, fish and coffee preparations, cocoa and infusions, which in both cases increased by 10.3%.
Compared to food, which led the year-on-year price increases, what became cheaper in the fourth month of the year in relation to April 2022 was combined passenger transport (-47.7%); electricity (-36.2%); other oils (-26.7%); bus passenger transport (-25%) and liquid fuels (-24.8%).
According to the INE, the year-on-year rise in the CPI to 4.1% in April is mainly due to housing, which raised its year-on-year rate by almost five points, to -10.8%, due to the lower intensity of the reduction in prices electricity, and transport, which placed its interannual rate at 0.6%, almost 5.5 points more, due to the rise in fuel for personal vehicles, compared to the decrease experienced in April 2022, the month in which that the universal rebate of 20 cents was being applied to fuel.
Without taking into account the reduction of the special tax on electricity and the variations on other taxes, the interannual CPI reached 4.7% in April, six tenths above the general rate of 4.1%. This is reflected in the CPI at constant taxes that the INE also publishes within the framework of this statistic.
Along with food, the clothing and footwear group also moderated its year-on-year rate in April, to 2.2%, as the price of all its components increased less this year than in April 2022.
HOTELS, WHAT BECAME THE MOST EXPENSIVE IN APRIL FOR HOLY WEEK
In monthly terms (April over March), the CPI registered an increase of 0.6%, two tenths more than what it rose in March (+0.4%) and eight tenths above the data for April 2022, when the prices were down 0.2%.
Several factors influenced this monthly increase in prices, including the 7.5% increase in the price of clothing and footwear due to the new spring-summer season and the rise in fuel prices for personal vehicles and automobiles.
Likewise, the celebration of Easter Week boosted the prices of the hotels, cafes and restaurants group by 1.5% due to the higher cost of accommodation and catering services, while the leisure and culture group became more expensive by 1 .1% in the month due to the increase in tourist packages.
In contrast, the housing group cut its prices by 1.8% in the fourth month of the year due to lower gas and electricity prices by 8.9% and 3.3%, respectively.
In short, what increased in price the most in April compared to the previous month were hotels, hostels and pensions (+17.2%), children’s clothing (+13.7%) and international tourist packages ( +13.7%), while the cheapest was natural gas (-10%).
In the fourth month of 2023, the Harmonized Consumer Price Index (IPCA) placed its interannual rate at 3.8%, seven tenths above that of the previous month. The monthly rate increased by 0.5%.
