• Electricity registers a 13% decline in January in year-on-year terms
  • The underlying rate, which excludes the most volatile elements of the CPI, remains at 0.8%
  • The inflation differential with respect to the euro zone is favorable to Spain in six tenths

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.6% year-on-year in January 2018, according to figures published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), a rate higher by one tenth than that advanced by the INE at the end of last month (0.5%) and half point lower than the one registered in December 2017 (1.1%). This evolution is explained by the year-on-year fall in the prices of energy products, after the increase of the previous month, and, to a lesser extent, by the slowdown in food prices, partially offset by the lower decrease in the prices of non-energy industrial goods (BINE), while service prices kept their rate of increase constant. In inter-monthly terms, the CPI has registered a 1.1% drop in January 2018, compared to the 0.5% decrease in the same month of 2017.

Energy product prices decreased 1.7% year-on-year in January 2018, following a 2.6% increase in December 2017, mainly due to the greater fall in electricity prices, which went from registering a rate from -0.2% year-on-year in December to -13% in January, and, to a lesser extent, to the slowdown in the prices of half-point fuels and lubricants, up to 2.5%. On the other hand, gas prices increased their growth rate by 1.4 points, to 8.2%.

Food inflation stood at 1.3% in January, four tenths lower than the previous month. The prices of unprocessed food grew 1.6%, 1.2 points less than the previous month, mainly due to the fall in prices of fresh vegetables and vegetables, of 3%, after the rise of 3.3 % in the previous month. The prices of processed food, beverages and tobacco slowed down one tenth, to 1.1% year-on-year.

Core inflation (which excludes unprocessed food and energy products, more volatile elements of the CPI) remained at 0.8% in January, for the third consecutive month, standing above general inflation for the first time since November. 2016. BINE prices fell 0.2%, one tenth less than in December, while processed food prices slowed down and those of services stabilized the pace of progress at 1.3% year-on-year.

In inter-monthly terms, the CPI registered a variation rate of -1.1% in January 2018, lower by six tenths than the one registered in the same month of 2017. By components, the prices of energy products increased 0 , 3%, compared to the 4.6% increase in January 2017; those of the feeding increased 0.3%, four tenths less than in the same month of the previous year; and those of the BINE and the services fell a tenth less,
placing its inter-monthly rates at -4.4% and -0.2%, respectively.

Within the food group, prices of unprocessed foods recorded in January 2018 an inter-monthly rate of 0.6% (1.8% in the same month of 2017), and those of processed foods increased 0.2 %, just like a year before.

Inflation decreased in January compared to December in all autonomous communities. The greatest decreases occurred in Cantabria (eight tenths, up to 0.4%) and Comunitat Valenciana (seven tenths, 0.4%). Catalonia (0.9%), Comunidad Foral de Navarra (0.3%) and the Canary Islands (0.8%), are those that present a minor decrease in their annual rate, of three tenths.

The interannual rate of the CPI at constant taxes stood at 0.6% in January, as was the one recorded by the general CPI.

The INE has also published the harmonized CPI (CPI) corresponding to the month of January, whose interannual rate stands at 0.7%, five tenths lower than that of December. For its part, the rate advanced by Eurostat for the whole of the euro zone in January is 1.3%, resulting in a favorable inflation differential for Spain with respect to the six-tenth euro zone, higher by four tenths of the month previous.



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