Continuing the downward trend of recent months, the inflation rate fell to 6.6% in November from 6.7% the previous month.
This fall was mainly due to a slowdown in the annual rate of increase in the ‘food’ group (8.5% in November compared with 9.3% in October), explains the National Statistics Institute (INS).
It also notes that the annual rate of increase in prices in the ‘Restaurants, cafés and hotels’ group accelerated from 11.1% in October to 11.8% in November 2024.
In a note published on Thursday, the INS said that food prices rose by 9.3% year-on-year.
This increase was mainly due to the 21.4% rise in sheepmeat prices, the 15.2% rise in dried fruit prices, the 14.1% rise in poultry prices, the 13.9% rise in fresh fish prices, the 13.1% rise in vegetable prices, the 11% rise in beef prices and the 6.8% rise in fruit prices.
On the other hand, prices of edible oil and eggs fell by 3% and 3.5% respectively.
Higher prices for industrial goods and services
Over the year, prices for industrial goods rose by 6%, driven by a 9.5% increase in the price of clothing and footwear and an 8% rise in the price of household goods.
Services prices rose by 5.6% year on year, mainly due to an 11.8% increase in the price of restaurant, café and hotel services.
Also in November 2024, the core inflation rate (excluding food and energy) remained stable at 6.3%, the INS notes, while the prices of free (unframed) products rose by 7.4% year-on-year, while the prices of framed products increased by 3.7%. Free food rose by 9.5%, compared with 1.6% for food with regulated prices.
Consumer prices increased by 0.1% compared to October 2024. This increase was mainly due to higher prices in the “Restaurants, cafés and hotels” (+1.3%) and “Clothing and footwear” (+0.4%) groups, while food prices fell by 0.4%.
Food prices
Over one month, food prices fell by 0.4%, due to the prices of edible oil (-8.9%), poultry (-1.1%) and fresh fruit (-1.7%), while the prices of fresh vegetables (+4.8%) and eggs (+2.1%) rose.
Prices in the group “Restaurants, cafés and hotels” increased by 1.3%. This increase was mainly due to a 1.8% rise in the prices of restaurant and café services.
Similarly, the prices of products in the ‘clothing and footwear’ group rose by 0.4%, due to a 0.6% increase in the price of clothing and a 0.5% increase in the price of fabrics.
The INS reports that the ‘industrial goods’ and ‘services’ groups were the main contributors to headline inflation, at 2.3% and 1.9% respectively.
The ‘non-agricultural food’ and ‘non-agricultural food’ groups made the largest contributions to inflation, at 3.4% and 2.3% respectively. The group ‘Regulated food’ made the smallest contribution, at 0.1%.
