Spain's National Institute of Statistics (INE) confirmed on Wednesday that inflation rose to 9.8% year-on-year in March, the highest rate in the country since May 1985, caused by rising prices for electricity, fuel and food.
The consumer price index (CPI) remains the same as the March 30 advance, with 2.2 points above the February figure, which amounted to 7.6%.
Of these 2.2 points of difference, the majority was contributed by the housing group (0.9 points), due to the increase in electricity, and the increase in transport (0.7 points), due to the rise in fuels.
The price of electricity has hit records in Spain, where March was the most expensive month in history in the country at 283.3 euros (306 dollars) per megawatt hour, six times more than a year ago.
The rise in fuel and fuel prices has worsened after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with an average price that at the end of March exceeded 1.80 euros ($1.95) per liter of gasoline and diesel.
When the March inflation advance was published, the president of the Spanish government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, stressed that this rise “by 73%” is attributable to the impact of the war in Ukraine, “due to the runaway price of energy and unprocessed food.”
In this framework, the thick lines of the new aid to cushion the economic impact of the Russian invasion, mean that 6 billion will be disbursed in direct measures and 10 billion in state-guaranteed loans to help businesses and families reduce the energy bill, increases in fuels, stop rent update and thus deal with inflation.
(With information from EFE)
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