Alex Trelinski
FOOD inflation has soared in Spain with an average shopping basket costing 38.5% more than in 2019.
The National Statistics Institute says that overall prices are 22.3% higher but food costs have leapt up further,
There is no sign of food inflation disappearing but the rate of rises has slowed down since the big uptick caused in the wake of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine in 2022.
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Fresh food in July was 7.2% more expensive than a year earlier- one of the highest figures of any EU state.
Processed foods however only rose by 1.3%.
Since 2019, fresh produce have risen by a staggering 43.2% while processed products are 33.7% more.
Though the general inflation rate may have slowed down, food prices have not gone down and basic foodstuffs like bread, meat, eggs, fruit or fish have never been so expensive in Spain.
A variety of examples using July as a benchmark have seen eggs up 18.3% compared to a year earlier, beef up by 15.1% and lamb rising by 11.7%.
People enjoying something sweet will have seen chocolate prices go up by 21.6% in a year, while
fruit prices are up 8.8%; legumes and vegetables, by 8.4%, and fish, by 6.2%.
The price increases have also been fuelled by the ending of the temporary VAT tax cut since January.
Following the rise in inflation influenced by events in the Ukraine, the government exempted VAT from basic foodstuffs, which has now been restored to 4%.
The Tax Agency has pocketed €853 million in the first six months of the year from the restoration of the duty.
The Bank of Spain says that many factors will contribute to food prices remaining high in the medium term and that has an effect on family spending.
“The increase in relative food prices produces a shift in household spending from other areas to food,” it stated.
“This generates more negative effects on lower-income households, whose share of food expenditure is comparatively higher than that of other households, which would be aggravated if the higher relative level of food prices persisted for a prolonged period,” it warned.
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