Inflation eased slightly for the fifth consecutive month in July to 9.1%, down from 9.3% in June, the National Statistics Institute (INS) announced on Saturday.
Despite the monthly increase, the INS explained that the decline was due to a slowdown in the rate of price increases between July and June this year compared to the same period last year.
In fact, the annual rate of increase for the food group slowed from 15.2% to 14.2%, for the clothing and footwear group from 9.7% to 9.4% and for the furniture, household equipment and routine household maintenance group from 9.7% to 9.5%.
Specifically, food prices rose by 14.2% on the year. This increase was mainly due to a 35% rise in the price of coffee powder, a 32.5% rise in the price of sheepmeat, a 21.6% rise in the price of beef, a 20.2% rise in the price of edible oils, a 19.3% rise in the price of eggs and a 14.6% rise in the price of fresh fruit.
Industrial supplies went up by 7.7%, led by a 6.8% increase for construction materials, a 9.4% rise for clothing and an 8.9% rise for household goods.
In services, prices rose by 6.5% year-on-year, mainly due to an 11.2% increase in restaurants, cafés and hotels, 15.3% in public and private transport and 20.7% in financial services.
In addition, core inflation (excluding food and energy) fell slightly to 7.3% from 7.4% in the previous month.
Prices of free (unregulated) products rose by 10.3%, while prices of regulated products increased by 5.1%. Prices of unregulated food rose by 16.4%, compared to 2.2% for regulated food.
