Inflation slowed down notably in May in Spain to return to 3.2% annually, particularly thanks to the fall in fuel prices, according to a provisional estimate published on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
This rate, still to be confirmed, stands 0.9 points below the level of April (4.1%), marked by a rebound in consumer prices, and 0.1 points below that of April in March ( 3.3%).
It allows Spain to get a little further away from the peak of 10.8% reached in July and get closer to the 2% target set by the European Central Bank, some eight weeks before the legislative elections called for July 23.
Food inflation slows
According to the INE, the slowdown in May is explained by the fall in fuel prices and by a slowdown in the rise in food prices, less in May than in the same period of the previous year.
The harmonized consumer price index (IPCA), which allows comparison with other countries in the euro area, rose 2.9%, 0.2 points less than in April (3.1%).
Core inflation, which does not take into account energy prices and is seasonally adjusted, fell 0.5 points to 6.1% in one year.
This dynamic confirms a “downward trend” of inflation, the ING bank underlined in a note, which attributes part of this dynamic to the measures adopted in recent months by the Spanish left-wing government.
Multiple aids
The Government of the President of the Socialist Government, Pedro Sánchez, has multiplied the budget impulses to support the purchasing power of households, strongly affected by inflation that reached an average of 8.4% last year.
At the end of December, he announced the abolition of VAT on basic necessities, as part of a 10 billion euro aid package aimed at curbing the rise in food prices. This measure raised to almost 50,000 million euros the total amount of the measures adopted by the Government of Sánchez for more than a year to help the Spanish.
With this 3.2% figure, Spain is in a more comfortable situation than most of its neighbors in the euro zone, where annual inflation reached 7% in April.
The slowdown in inflation is periodically highlighted by the executive, which has been facing discontent among the population for months due to the drop in purchasing power.
This discontent partly explains, according to analysts, the clear defeat of the Socialist Party and its allies in the municipal and regional elections on Sunday, which have consecrated the comeback of the right.
The defeat of the PS, of an unexpected magnitude, led Pedro Sánchez to call early legislative elections on July 23, which the conservative Popular Party (PP) and the far-right Vox will face from a position of strength.
Source: BFM TV
