Energy costs push Spain’s inflation to 13-year-high

September 29, 2021

(Reuters) – Spain’s inflation surged to a 13-year-high in September as national consumer prices rose 4.0% year-on-year, flash data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Wednesday.

The highest reading since September 2008, when the rate was 4.5%, was fuelled by energy costs and to a lesser extent by the prices of tourism packages and vehicle fuels and lubricants, according to INE.

Spain and other European countries have faced soaring energy bills as gas prices rocket on factors such as low storage stocks.

INE data also showed Spain’s EU-harmonised consumer price index rose by 4.0% in September on an annual basis, also a 13-year record, up from 3.3% in August. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 3.7% price increase.

Spiralling energy costs have also pushed Spanish industrial prices to their highest level since May 1980 after jumping 18% year-on-year in August, INE reported on Monday.

Higher industrial prices are usually passed on into consumer prices, at least partly, within weeks.

(Reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Inti Landauro and Catherine Evans)

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