Inflation continues to go through, at a minimum step, the de-escalation from the records in four decades. The data for April was finally at 8.3% year-on-year, after lowering yesterday the National Institute of Statistics (INE) one tenth the figure advanced a couple of weeks ago. But there is no truce in the shopping cart. Prices in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group have risen 10.1%, more than three points above the March reference.
Month after month, the IPC falls back two tenths, which does not mean that they continue to be times of maximums. On the one hand, the food group, and its 10.1%, had never registered such high levels in the current statistical series, which dates back to 2002. In other previous databases, a number of such caliber did not occur until 1986. On the other hand, core inflation, which does not take into account energy prices or non-manufactured products, is at 4.4%, as it had been advanced. It is its maximum since the end of 1995.
The result is that of a general rise in the shopping basket. In a way that has even surprised analysts. "There have been significant deviations from what is expected in food," Funcas analyzed yesterday in an article. He highlights above all the chapter on “other edible oils”, where sunflower oil would enter. The price has doubled (96%), in one year. The olive reaches 43% increase. And the same dizzying figures are found for flour, which is up 23%, pasta 25%, eggs 22%, milk 14%, butter 13%... You can continue walking through imaginary corridors of the supermarket where the picture is similar: beef is 11.4% more expensive, fresh fish is 9.7%, fresh fruit is 9.5%.
It is confirmation of what has been confirmed for months, that the rise in energy prices has been transferred to other products. Because in April liquid fuels were 96% more expensive than last year, electricity 35% more and natural gas 19%. With higher costs to produce, companies end up transferring it to the products, to the customer. Thus, with energy on the sidelines, "inflation in the rest of the CPI components continues to rise, due to the intensification of the transfer to final consumer prices of the increase in production costs," Funcas analyzed yesterday in an article.
In April, the increase in prices in the tourism sector also stands out. The price in hotels rises 50% in a year, when in April 2021 they fell 26%. In a similar case, the prices of international plane tickets rose by 9.6% and national ones by 4%, due to a decrease twelve months ago. Economist Ángel Talavera, from Oxford Economics, attributes this to a "strong rise in prices at Easter due to tourism," according to a tweet. It also coincides with the long-awaited exit from the crisis in the sector after the worst of the pandemic.
The earthquake of costs, with the war in Ukraine putting pressure on the economy and bottlenecks threatening factories, also affects all kinds of items. Material for housing works rose 8.5%, furniture 9%, household appliances more than 5%, cleaning products 5.5%, new cars 6%... There was also an increase in 10.6% in bank commissions.
The Government works with a scenario of decreases, but the objective of bringing the figure closer to 2% is further away. Funcas, in fact, revised his average annual inflation forecast upwards to 7%, two tenths more than he expected before.
Everything ends up impacting the daily life of the Spanish. With gasoline prices soaring when refueling, forcing the Government to launch the 20-cent bonus, negotiations to update salaries stalled, with employers and unions colliding over the update of salaries with revision clauses, once businessmen have rejected increases with base inflation.
Without taking into account the measures that the Government has approved to combat the rise in prices, such as the reduction of taxes on electricity or the refueling bonus, the CPI would remain at 9.3%.
By autonomies, prices moderate in all, although no drop from an increase of 7% in April. The Canary Islands registered the lowest inflation (7.1%), due to 10.4% in Castilla-La Mancha, where the references rose the most.
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