- Core inflation rises one tenth, to 1.1%
- The favorable differential for Spain with respect to the euro area remains at 0.3 percentage points
The annual rate of the general CPI decreased four tenths in February 2020 compared to the previous month, to 0.7%.
The prices of energy products fell 3.3% year-on-year in February, after the stabilization observed in January, mainly due to the lower rise in fuel and fuel prices to 0.2%, 5 points less than in January . Prices of fuels and lubricants also slowed, growing 2.3%, compared to 8.4% the previous month.
Unprocessed food prices increased 2.7% year-on-year, eight tenths less than in January, mainly due to the slowdown in prices of fresh or chilled fish, which grew 5%, compared to 9.4% in the month previous and, to a lesser extent, of fresh vegetables and legumes, which fell 1.6%, compared to the 1.3% rise in January.
Core inflation, which excludes the most volatile elements of the CPI (unprocessed food and energy products), increased one tenth to 1.1%. This growth was mainly due to the acceleration in the prices of processed foods, which grew 1.3%, three tenths more than in January, driven by consignments of processed meat, and, to a lesser extent, to services and non-energy industrial goods, whose growth rates increased one tenth in each case, to 1.5% and 0.4%, respectively.
In February, the year-on-year rate of the CPI decreased compared to that of January in all the autonomous communities except the Canary Islands, where it remained at 1.1%. The greatest decreases occurred in Asturias, 0.3%, Navarra, 0.6%, and the Basque Country, 0.8%, six tenths in each case.
The annual rate of the CPI for constant taxes stood at 0.7% in February, the same as that of the general CPI.
The INE has also published the harmonized CPI (IPCA) corresponding to the month of February, whose interannual rate has decreased two tenths, reaching 0.9%. Inflation advanced by Eurostat for the euro area as a whole stood at 1.2% in the same period, maintaining the favorable differential for Spain at 0.3 percentage points.
