Spain’s annual food price inflation rate remained high at 7.4% in January

Costs in Spain’s grocery stores continue to be the Achilles’ heel in the fight against inflation.

According to the INE National Statistics Office, the annual inflation rate for basic food items was 7.4% in January this year, a slight increase compared to December. The biggest increases were in seafood, vegetables, and edible oil.

In fact, food is the category that deviates the most from other inflation rates. Spain’s overall inflation rate at the end of January was 3.4% year-on-year, an increase of 0.3 percentage points from December.

The food price hike comes after almost two weeks of farmers protesting across the country demanding fairer prices, an end to “unfair” competition with third countries and a simplification of EU bureaucracy. , it didn’t exactly happen at the best of times.

The Economy Ministry acknowledged that food prices “remain high” but insisted they were “on track” to return to normalcy.

He added that the food inflation rate was 16.6% in February 2023, but has more than halved in the past year.

Underlying inflation (excluding basic food and energy products) fell 0.2 percentage points to 3.6%, slightly above overall inflation but the lowest underlying figure since March 2022. It became the standard.