MADRID, 25 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -
Industrial prices decreased by 8.2% last February compared to the same month in 2023, increasing by 4.3 points the decrease recorded last January, mainly due to the lower price of electrical energy, according to The National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported this Monday.
With the year-on-year decrease in February, inflation in the industrial sector continues twelve months of negative rates after in March 2023 it put an end to a period of 26 consecutive months of increases, in which it recorded double-digit positive rates for more than of 20 months.
The evolution of industrial prices in February is a consequence of the decline experienced by energy, which cut its interannual rate by 11.4 points, to -24.2%, due to the lower prices of the production, transportation and distribution of electrical energy, compared to to the price increase it experienced in February 2023.
However, Statistics notes a rebound in the prices of gas production and oil refining compared to the decrease recorded in February of last year.
Likewise, non-durable consumer goods cut their interannual rate nine tenths in February, to 4.7%, the lowest since November 2021, due to the lower prices of meat processing and preservation and the production of meat products.
At the opposite extreme, intermediate goods increased their interannual rate four tenths in the second month of the year, up to -5.2%, due to the increase in the cost of manufacturing basic chemical products, compared to the decrease in prices the previous year.
The annual variation rate of industrial prices excluding energy closed February at 0.0%, two tenths less than in January and 8.2 points above the general index.
STRONG MONTHLY DECLINE IN INDUSTRIAL ENERGY PRICES
In monthly rate (February over January), industrial prices fell by 2.3%, their largest monthly fall since March 2023, also due to the lower cost of energy.
In fact, among the activities that most influenced this monthly price cut, the production and distribution of electrical energy stood out, with a decrease of 18%.
Also notable were the falls in prices in the manufacturing of animal feed products (-1.3%), the manufacturing of vegetable and animal oils and fats (-0.9%) and the manufacturing of meat products (-0.5%). ).
On the other hand, the largest monthly price increases occurred in oil refining (6.8%), the manufacture of basic chemical products (3.7%), gas production (0.9%), the manufacture of concrete, cement and gypsum products (2%), and the manufacture of rubber products (3.7%).
ALL COMMUNITIES CUT THEIR INDUSTRIAL PRICES
According to Statistics data, all communities presented negative rates of industrial prices at the end of the second month of the year.
The most pronounced were those of Asturias and the Canary Islands (-28.9% in both cases), the Balearic Islands (-28.1%) and Madrid (-15.1%), while the most moderate negative rates corresponded to the Valencian Community ( -4%), Catalonia (-4.6%), Andalusia (-4.7%) and Extremadura (-4.8%).
