After five consecutive months of decline, inflation rose to 9.3% in August, compared with 9.1% in July and 9.3% in June, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute (INS).
According to the Institute, this increase is due to the acceleration in the rate of price increases between July and August this year compared with the same period last year, particularly in the group “Food”, where the year-on-year increase in prices went up from 14.2% to 15.3%, the group “Alcoholic beverages and tobacco”, which rose from 1.8% to 4.6%, and the group “Restaurants and hotels”, which grew from 11.2% to 11.5%.
In August, the rise in food prices was mainly due to a 35% increase in the price of coffee powder, a 33% increase in the price of sheepmeat, a 29.7% increase in the price of eggs, a 23.7% increase in the price of edible oils and a 20.4% increase in the price of beef, while the price of non-durable goods rose by 7.6%, due to a 6.7% increase in the price of building materials, a 9.2% increase in the price of clothing and an 8.9% increase in the price of household goods.
In services, prices rose by 6.4% year-on-year, mainly due to an 11.5% increase in the price of restaurants, cafés and hotels, a 12.2% increase in the price of public and private transport services and a 20.7% increase in the price of financial services.
The core inflation (excluding food and energy) fell slightly to 7.2% in August from 7.3% in the previous month. Prices for non-regulated products rose by 10.5% year-on-year, while prices for regulated products went up by 5.2%.
Finally, prices of unregulated food rose by 17.7%, compared with 2.1% for regulated food.
