Industrial prices in Spain rise in January at slowest pace in almost two years

Feb 24 (Reuters) – Spanish industrial production prices rose 8.2% in the 12 months to January, more than six percentage points below the December figure, reported on Friday the National Institute of Statistics.

This figure contrasts with the revised increase of 14.9% recorded in the 12 months ending in December. The rise in the price of industrial output in the 12 months to January was the slowest since March 2021, when it was 6.4%.

The 12-month index peaked at 47% in March 2022.

Industrial prices fell by 2% in January compared to December, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). The drop was mainly due to lower energy prices, which were almost 8.8% lower than the previous month.

Companies often pass on industrial price increases to customers, which ends up fueling inflation.

Year-on-year inflation in January was 5.9%, below the peak of 10.8% reached in July 2022, as INE reported last week, although core inflation, which excludes volatile fresh food and energy prices, was 7.5%.

(Reporting by Marta Serafinko; Spanish edition by Flora Gómez)