MADRID, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1% in February in relation to the previous month and raised its interannual rate by two tenths, up to 6.1%, due to higher energy and food prices, according to advanced data published this Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
With the increase registered in the second month of 2023, inflation chains two consecutive months of increases in its interannual rate and stands at its highest value since last November, when the CPI reached 6.8%.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, anticipated last night in an interview on Telecinco, collected by Europa Press, that inflation was going to rise due to the higher cost of energy in recent weeks, and then decrease over the next few months.
"We have to see how inflation evolves over the next few months. We contemplate a slight rise, but then a drop in inflation over the next few months as a result of the fact that there has been a rise in the price of energy in recent weeks Sanchez explained.
The data for February, which must be confirmed by Statistics in the middle of next month, is 4.7 points lower than the peak reached last July, when inflation climbed to 10.8%, its highest level since September from 1984.
According to the INE, the year-on-year CPI rise to 6.1% in February is mainly due to higher energy prices and the fact that the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages have risen more than they did in February 2022.
On the contrary, Statistics highlights that in February the prices of fuels and combined passenger transport fell, the latter as a result of the free transport vouchers launched by the Government and complemented by the autonomous communities.
The INE includes an estimate of core inflation in the CPI data preview (excluding unprocessed food and energy products), which in February rose two tenths, to 7.7%, standing 1.6 points above the general CPI and at its highest values in more than 40 years.
In monthly terms (February over January), the CPI registered an increase of 1%, its biggest monthly rise since last June, when it rose 1.9%.
