Spain said goodbye to 2022 with the lowest inflation (5.5%) in the euro zone (9.2%) and the EU (10.4%)

Core inflation in the euro zone reached a new all-time high in December, at 5.2%

Jan. 18 () –

The year-on-year inflation rate in the euro area stood at 9.2% in December, which implies a drop of nine tenths compared to 10.1% in November, while in the European Union prices moderated their rise to 10, 4% from 11.1%, according to the community statistical office, Eurostat, which points to Spain as the country of the Twenty-seven where prices rose less intensely, with 5.5%.

In this way, the inflation rate in the euro area and the EU as a whole registered its second consecutive relief, after having climbed to all-time highs in October, when it reached 10.6% in the euro area and 11.5% in the EU.

In December, the rise in energy prices in the euro area moderated to 25.5% from 34.9% in November, while the price of fresh food was 12%, compared to 13.8% in the last month.

Similarly, services rose 4.4% year-on-year, two tenths more than in November, and non-energy industrial goods became more expensive by 6.4%, three tenths more than in the previous month.

By excluding the impact of energy from the calculation, the year-on-year inflation rate in the euro zone stood at 7.2% in December, two tenths above the rise in November, while also leaving out the effect of prices of fresh food, alcohol and tobacco, the core inflation rate rose two tenths, climbing to a new all-time high of 5.2%.

Among the Twenty-seven, 16 economies recorded double-digit year-on-year inflation rates, including nine from the Eurozone and Croatia, with the largest price increases concentrated in Hungary (25%), Latvia (20.7%), Lithuania (20%) and Estonia (17.5%).

On the contrary, the least intense harmonized inflation rates in December corresponded to Spain (5.5%), Luxembourg (6.2%) and France (6.7%).

Thus, the favorable price differential for Spain with respect to the euro area widened in December to 3.7 percentage points from the 3.4 points of the previous month.

Outside the EU, the UK inflation rate for December stood at 10.5%, up from 10.7% in November, while the country’s core CPI held at 6.3%.

In the case of the United States, prices rose 6.5% year-on-year in December, compared to 7.1% in November, thus chaining six months of moderation and registering the smallest price increase since October 2021. time, subjacent inflation in the United States stood at 6%, three tenths less than the previous month.