In Spain, February saw a reduction in consumer inflation to the lowest level in six months, primarily due to a drop in electricity costs. This information emerged on Thursday from a preliminary report by Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE).
Consumer inflation eased to 2.8% from 3.4% in the preceding month, which aligns with predicted estimates. Moreover, this rate is the slowest since September 2023, when an inflation of 2.6% was reported.
The reduced inflation trend is attributed mainly to lower electricity prices compared to an increase in February 2023. Moreover, there was a stable situation for the pricing of foodstuffs and non-alcoholic beverages, as pointed out by INE.
Meanwhile, the core inflation, excluding volatile items, showed a gradual decrease for the seventh consecutive month in February, falling to 3.4% from 3.6% recorded in January.
Data demonstrated that harmonised consumer prices, adjusted to make them comparable with the inflation rates of European Union countries, diminished to a six-month low of 2.9% from 3.5% as anticipated.
Furthermore, the consumer price index showed a 0.3% increase month-on-month in February compared to only a 0.1% rise in January. The harmonised index, in agreement with EU standards, grew by 0.4% during the same period.
