Inflation has confirmed its upward trend at the beginning of the year. According to figures published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), it rose for the fourth consecutive month in January to 6.7%, from 6.6% in December, 6.4% in November and 6.3% in October.
This increase is mainly explained by the acceleration in the pace of price increases for alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+18.6%) as well as for the furniture, household goods and routine household maintenance group (+5.4%). Food prices maintained the same pace of increase (+7.6%).
Rising food inflation
Food prices went up by 7.6% year-on-year in January 2022. This increase is mainly due to the rise in egg prices by 24.2%, poultry prices by 21.5%, olive oil by 21.7%, fresh fruit by 17.9% and fresh fish by 9.2%. On the other hand, prices of dried fruit dropped by 7.1% over the year.
Manufactured products and services
Prices of manufactured goods rose by 7.8% in January due to the increase in prices of pharmaceutical products by 5.7%, building materials by 13.4%, clothing products by 8.8% and household cleaning products by 5.6%.
In services, prices grew 4.7% year-on-year, driven by a 6.2% increase in prices for restaurants, cafés and hotels, 5.2% for health services and 4.4% for rents.
Core inflation and core product inflation
The core inflation rate (excluding food and energy) reached 6.5%, from 6.4% in the previous month. Prices of free (unregulated products rose by 6.7%.
Prices of regulated products rose by 6.5%. Free food products went up by 8.4%, compared with 3.6% for food products with regulated prices.
