The rise in rates the most since the creation of the euro, with which the European Central Bank (ECB) has set the price of money at 3% accelerates in February, allows inflation to moderate for the third consecutive month to 8.6%, its lowest level since June of last year, just before the turn of the helm in monetary policy began. The rise in prices is contained from the 9.2% average that it reached in December among the countries that share a currency, although core inflation (which excludes from its calculation more volatile components such as energy or fresh food) marks a new maximum historical at 5.3%, which gives more arguments to the entity led by Christine Lagarde to continue with the rate hike.
The data that Eurostat has confirmed this Thursday means revising one tenth upwards the estimate that it published just a few weeks ago. In the countries of the European Union as a whole, the annual CPI rate stood at 10% last month, four tenths below what it saw off in December and has also accumulated three consecutive months of moderation. Spain is once again positioned as one of the economies where the price rise was lower, at 5.9%, so that only Luxembourg presents a lower rate (5.8%). This fact allows the national economy to continue gaining competitiveness in relation to its main trading partners. Of course, the differential was reduced by one point in relation to the previous month to 2.7.
The rise in energy prices moderated to 18.9% in January from 25.5% in December 2022, while the price of fresh food was 11.3%, compared to 12% last month , a slight moderation that consumers will barely even notice in their pockets. At the same time, services rose by 4.4% year-on-year, a figure very similar to that of December, while non-energy industrial goods became more expensive by 6.7%, three tenths more than in the previous month.
