Price level fell by 0.6 percent in December
In Spain, the decline in consumer prices weakened further towards the end of the year. The price level measured according to European standards (HICP) fell by 0.6 percent in December compared to the same month last year, the Spanish statistics agency INE announced on Wednesday in Madrid after an initial estimate. In November prices were still 0.8 percent and in October by 0.9 percent.
Analysts had expected the price decline to continue to lose strength. For December, they had expected prices to fall by 0.7 percent on average. In a month-on-month comparison, consumer prices increased by 0.1 percent.
The falling price level over the year is a consequence of falling energy prices. In addition, the economic consequences of the corona pandemic are dampening price developments in the fourth largest economy in the euro zone. The Spanish inflation rate has been in negative territory since April.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is aiming for an inflation rate of almost two percent for the entire euro area in the medium term. Because it had not achieved this goal sustainably for a long time, it eased its monetary policy extremely even before the virus pandemic and again increased the purchase program for securities in December.
