Inflation continues to punish families' pockets after stagnating at 4.9% due to the drop in fuel prices

Inflation continues to be a headache for families. Prices have risen another 4.9% in October, the same level as in September. The rate stagnates due to the fall in gasoline, which has been subsidized throughout the last month, but remains the highest since February 2023. Core inflation, which excludes the prices of fresh food and energy from its calculation, also remains at the same level as in September, at 3.1%.

The prices of the shopping basket had risen sharply in September, that 4.9%, due to the acceleration of gasoline, which shot up 28% compared to the same month a year ago. The sharp rise in diesel (34%) and gasoline (27.5%) exceeded the 15% limit that the Government had set as a safeguard to reinforce the discounts included in the decree of protection measures for the war. Thus, a 20 cent bonus will continue to be applied to both fuels in November - instead of reducing the discount to 13 cents, as planned.

In November the same will not happen with the electricity bill, given that electricity prices increased by 11.4%, below the 15% that would have caused the activation of the safeguard. There will also be no changes in gas, since its prices increased by 5.4% last month. Energy prices as a whole registered their biggest increase since 2022, the year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in which the global energy crisis worsened.

Prices have risen more intensely in Spain than in the Eurozone average, where they rose by 3.8% last month. It is an increase that is well above the objective set by the European Central Bank (ECB) of 2%. The entity has decided to maintain interest rates at 2.5% in its last meeting, held on Thursday, in which it recognized that the war in Iran and energy pose a risk to inflation and growth in the area.