The National Institute of Statistics (INE) has confirmed that annual inflation in March rose to 9.8%, after an increase of 3% compared to February. This is the highest level since May 1985 after a month of war in Ukraine. According to the data, the housing component, by electricity price, is the one that has risen the most, with an annual variation of 33.1%. This is followed by transport, due to the rise in gasoline and dieselwith 18.6% and the food and non-alcoholic beverages, with 6.8%. At a monthly level, the most pronounced increases were those of liquid fuels, with 29.8%, and those of electricity, with 28.5%. Oils stand out among foods, with a monthly increase of 4.4%, and eggs, with 4.3%.
The annual rate of the CPI increases in March compared to February in all the autonomous communities. The largest increase, of almost three points, occurs in Castilla-La Mancha. For its part, the community where the annual rate rose the least was Canarias, with an increase of 1.6 points.
The escalation experienced by prices is closely linked to the costs of Energy that have been transferred to the economy as a whole, as revealed by the Underlying inflationwhich excludes energy and unprocessed food, stands at 3.4%, the highest since September 2008. This evolution has worsened as a result of the ukrainian warwhich has led the Government to launch a crash plan which must be validated at the end of the month in Congress.
The rise in the consumer price index, which has brought the interannual rate to the levels of almost 40 years ago, does nothing more than lower the purchasing power of wagesbut also from saving and causes increases in rentals. Therefore, in fact, the Government has limited the increase in income to 2% until next June 30.
Although the rise was initially linked to energy prices, the thrust of the CPI has been transferred to the economy as a whole. In particular, basic products such as food. In this context, the Executive has opted to promote a rent agreement that serves to moderate margins and, therefore, corporate profits, as well as wage increases. But these negotiations between employers and unions are not going in the right direction for now.
An example of the escalation in prices is that the monthly increase, that is, from March to February, has been the highest in 45 years. Entities such as Funcas have calculated that, as a consequence of this evolution, families will be impoverished by some 16,700 million. In addition, the more a high level of the CPI is consolidated, the more the pay that pensioners receive will have to be with respect to the expected inflation, since the increase for this year starts from 2.5%, but it will have to be adjusted with the average of the year .
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