Two-way inflation in Europe: deceleration in France and increase in Spain

MILAN – The encouraging signals from the European economies on the price front continue. After Germany And Italy France also saw inflation slow in July to 4.3% from 4.5% in June, with monthly growth of 0.1%.

The French statistical office points out that food prices are falling (+0.1% after +0.3%), while service prices are rising (+1.5% after +0.2%). On an annual basis, consumer prices increased by 4.3% in July 2023, after +4.5% in June. The deceleration in inflation is reportedly due to a stronger fall in energy prices yoy compared to the previous month (-3.7% after -3.0%) and on the other hand a fall in food prices (+12.7% after +13). .7%) and industrial goods (+3.4% after +4.2%).

The Spanish figure goes in the opposite direction, but has been observing growth rates that are significantly less worrying than the other European countries for months. In Spain, prices rose by 0.2% in July compared to the previous month and the annualized inflation rate rose by four tenths to 2.3%, mainly due to the rise in fuel prices and also the increase in food prices, which rose by five Tenths to 2.3% increased 10.8%.

With data confirmed on Friday by the National Statistics Institute INE, inflation continued its upward trend, ending two straight months of declines that took the CPI to 1.9% in June, its lowest level since March 2021.

For its part, the INE confirmed that core inflation (excluding unprocessed food and energy products) rose three-tenths of a percentage point to 6.2% in July, almost four points above the headline CPI. The statistics attributed the rise in headline CPI to increases in the price of fuel and lubricants for private vehicles, increases in clothing and shoes, increases in package holidays, and increases in food and soft drinks.

As for the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, Ine confirmed that their fluctuation increased by five tenths of a percentage point and reached 10.8%, which is due to the fact that the prices of fruits and oils, which fell by 10.8% a year % were higher in the first half than in the second half.