Los prices have been in August 2.6% higher than in the same month last year, which means that year-on-year inflation has risen three tenths compared to its July record (2.3%), continuing the upward path that will lead it to end the year at around 5 %, according to experts.
The advanced data published this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) -and which must be confirmed in mid-September- reveal that inflation accelerated this monthwhile the underlying -which measures the price of all the goods and services we consume except energy products and fresh food- remains entrenched and only managed to drop by one tenth in August: from 6.2% to 6.1%.
As in previous months, this is an unreasonable and worrying level, since it is one of the indicators on which the European Central Bank (ECB) to decide whether or not to pause the rhythm of rise in interest ratesas it is considered a sign of the trend that general inflation will follow in the future.
“This evolution is mainly due to the rise in the prices of fuels and, to a lesser extent, of liquid fuelscompared to the decreases registered in August 2022. It should be noted, although in the opposite direction, the behavior of the prices of the electricitywhich this month increases, but less than in August 2022″, explained the INE. Given that gasoline and diesel and, to a lesser extent, butane and other fuels have become more expensive this August than they rose last year -when the fuel discount was in force-, the CPI has experienced an increase.
The star month of summer has closed with a price increase of 0.5% compared to July, while in that same monthly comparison the core has increased by 0.3%. Since the INE approved in January a change in the composition of the CPI -which, for example, now measures prices in the free electricity market, when last year it only monitored those of the regulated one-, is not really comparable with last year’s record, which is why many experts ask that more be provided interest to monthly price evolution.