economy

Prices in the Canary Islands have risen by 4% in March

Prices in the Canary Islands grew by 4% in March, affected by the rise in food prices, which increased by 17.4%.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the Canary Islands increased by 4.6 percent in March compared to the same month in 2021, seriously affected by the rise in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which increased by 17.4 percent. That is way above the average year-on-year rate in Spain, according to the the most recent data issued by the National Statistics Institute (INE).


Thus, the Canary Islands is the region of Spain that registered lowest decrease in prices during the year, with a drop of 2.2 points. Comparing the figures to those of previous year, the only prices that fell were housing (-15.3%) and transport (-1.1%), while the rest rose, although the highest price increases were in hotels, cafes and restaurants (+9.4%), leisure and culture (+5.7%), and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+4%), together with food. The monthly figure, meanwhile, shows a 0.2% increase in prices compared to February, while so far this year they have risen by 1.2%.

In Spain as a whole, prices rose by 0.4% in March compared with the previous month and cut their year-on-year rate by 2.7 points, to 3.3%, due to lower electricity and fuel prices and the fact that food and clothing and footwear prices rose less than in the same month in 2022.

This moderation in the year-on-year CPI growth rate brings inflation to its lowest level since August 2021, when a rate of 3.3% was also recorded, and represents a break with two consecutive months of rises that took the CPI to 6% last February. The year-on-year rate of the CPI had not fallen so much in one month (-2.7 points) since May 1977.

Core inflation (excluding unprocessed food and energy products) fell by one tenth of a point in March to 7.5%, 4.2 points above the headline CPI and at its highest level in more than 40 years. The gap between core and headline inflation is the widest since August 1986, when INE began calculating the former.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs has highlighted that core inflation fell in March for the first time since last September, while stressing that Spain remains among the countries with the “lowest” inflation in the European Union.

FOOD MODERATES ITS YEAR-ON-YEAR RISE BUT RISES BY 1.1% IN THE MONTH

According to Statistics, food prices rose by 16.5% year-on-year in March, one tenth of a percentage point less than in February, when they rose by 16.6%, a record rate since 1994.

This performance was influenced by the fact that fish and seafood, milk, cheese and eggs, and oils and fats increased their prices less than in March last year. In contrast, the prices of vegetables and other foodstuffs rose more than in March 2022.

The Department headed by Nadia Calviño has highlighted the moderation of food prices by one tenth of a percentage point and the “good performance” of electricity prices thanks to the ‘Iberian exception’ and fuel prices.

In monthly terms (March over February), the CPI recorded an increase of 0.4%, five tenths less than what it rose in February (+0.9%) and 2.6 points below what it did in March 2022, when prices soared by 3%.

This monthly increase in prices was influenced by several factors, including food, which rose by 1.1% with respect to February due to price rises in most of its components, especially vegetables, meat and other food products.


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