CONSUMERS in Spain will get more bang for their buck next month after the rate of inflation fell for the third month running.
According to provisional figures released on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), inflation fell steeply by half a percentage point in January from December, slowing to 2.4 per cent.
That is the third consecutive monthly fall after back-to-back one-tenth of a percentage point decreases in November and December.
It is the largest drop in inflation for ten months and the lowest figure since June last year, when the rate of inflation stood at 2.3 per cent.
“Inflation continues to moderate in line with the European Central Bank’s target of remaining stable at around 2 per cent, allowing households to continue to gain purchasing power,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
The INE says January’s sharp slowdown was driven by cheap energy prices and a fall in the cost of fuel.
That is evidenced by the rate of core inflation – a metric that excludes food and energy prices – which has remained level at 2.6 per cent for the third consecutive month.
“Given our growth, which is much higher than that of the eurozone, it is to be expected that we will have to live with slightly higher inflation. What matters for households will be how wages move in comparison with prices,” said Angel Talavera, chief Europe economist at Oxford Economics.
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