- The underlying rate, which excludes the most volatile elements of the CPI, decreased two tenths, reaching 1.2%
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased in August 2017 by 1.6% year-on-year, one tenth more than in July, according to figures published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), a rate coinciding with that advanced by the INE at the end of last month. This evolution is mainly explained by the acceleration of the prices of energy products and, to a lesser extent, of processed food, partially offset by the lower growth rate of the prices of services and non-energy industrial goods (BINE), and by the steepest decline in raw food prices. In month-on-month terms, the CPI grew 0.2% in August 2017, compared to the 0.1% rise in the same month of 2016.
The prices of energy products increased 6.3% year-on-year, 2.2 points more than in July, mainly due to the acceleration in the prices of fuels and lubricants, which went from 1.9% year-on-year in July to 5.4 % in August. Likewise, gas prices grew 12.6%, compared to 10.7% the previous month. For their part, electricity prices reduced their rate of increase by eight tenths, to 5.4%.
Food inflation stood at 0.3% in August, the same as the previous month. The prices of unprocessed food fell 1.6%, six tenths more than the previous month, highlighting the behavior of fresh fruits, whose prices intensified their rate of decline by 2.8 points (they fell from 12% in July to 14.8% in August). The prices of processed food, beverages and tobacco increased 1.1% in August, one tenth more than in July. It should be noted the acceleration of nine tenths of oils and fats, up to 7%.
Core inflation, which excludes unprocessed food and energy, the most volatile elements of the CPI, decreased two tenths in August, to 1.2%, mainly due to the slower rate of increase in the prices of services and non-energy industrial goods (BINE). Services grew 1.7% year-on-year, two tenths less than in July, highlighting the evolution of the prices of tourist packages, which slowed 2.2 points, to 6.2%, and of telephone and fax, which moderated the rate of increase nine tenths, up to 1.5%. For their part, BINE prices stabilized in August, after increasing 0.3% in July, highlighting the slowdown in car prices, which went from growing 3.3% in July to 1.7 % in August. In contrast, processed food increased 1.1%, one tenth more than in the previous month.
In month-on-month terms, the CPI registered a variation rate of 0.2% in August, compared to the 0.1% increase registered in the same month of 2016. By component, the prices of services increased by 0.4%, two tenths less than a year earlier; those of the BINE fell 0.2%, compared to the stability of August 2016; those of the food decreased 0.1%, after the null variation of a year before; and those of energy products grew 1%, after the drop of the same magnitude in August last year.
Within the food group, the prices of unprocessed food registered in August 2017 a month-on-month rate of -0.9% (-0.3% in the same month of 2016), and those of processed foods of 0, 2% (0.1% a year earlier).
The annual rate of the CPI increased in August in ten autonomous communities, remained unchanged in four and decreased in the remaining three. The greatest increases occurred in the inflation rates of Cantabria and the Principality of Asturias (five and two tenths, respectively, up to 1.8% and 1.5%), and the largest decreases in La Rioja and the Comunidad Foral de Navarra ( two tenths both, up to 1.5% and 1%, respectively).
The annual rate of the CPI for constant taxes stood at 1.6% in August, as did the general CPI.
The INE has also published the harmonized CPI (HICP) corresponding to the month of August 2017, whose interannual variation rate stands at 2%, three tenths higher than in July. For its part, the rate advanced by Eurostat for the euro area as a whole was 1.5% in August, two tenths above that of the previous month, resulting in an inflation differential for Spain with respect to the euro area of 0, 5 points, one tenth higher than in July.
