2024-01-13 10:30:54
Girona closed 2023 with one price increase of 3.2% well below the 5.8% with which the year 2022 ended. The final data of the consumer price index (CPI) for December published yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics confirm the advance by the same INE two weeks ago and they show that the inflation rate was contained with help, above all, from food whose prices, on average, did not rise compared to November, despite the euphoria of the Christmas holidays. The Girona CPI is in the average Catalanwhich closed 2023 with an increase of 3.2%, one tenth above the Spanish average.
Among all the products and services that make up the typical basket with which the CPI is configured, in Girona the increase applied this year by tourism sector. Thus, accommodation prices have increased by 11.9% in annual terms and tourist packages have increased by 9%. Linked to this sector, it should be noted that the restaurant industry has raised prices more moderately: 5.7% in the last year.
But one of the main expenses of families is the food: Filling the fridge in December 2023 was 6.9% more expensive than doing it in the same month of the previous year. The percentage represents a brake on the year-on-year variation in November, when the CPI for food stood at 8.1%. Relaxed figures that are half the increase recorded in August in the interannual CPI, when it reached 13.3%.
Among the prices that fall the most are those of electricity, gas and other fuels, with an annual drop of 17.6%. Some of the usual expenses, such as housing rent, have also grown and have done so at the same rate as the global inflation (3.2%). New vehicle prices are also rising at the same rate, and buying a car at the end of 2023 was 3% more expensive than at the end of 2022.
After analyzing the IPC data, the employers’ association Pimec warned of the “increased risk of a economic slowdown more significant’ and called for lower interest rates in light of current inflation levels. The employer opened the door to the fact that the slowdown “is more complex to reverse than inflation itself” and, on the other hand, also highlighted the impact of the drought in the prices
For its part, CCOO of Catalonia asked to expand the social shield to mitigate the effects of inflation, despite the restraint in price increases in recent months. According to the union, one of the good news in the data is the reduction in core inflation, which was 3.8% in December and has fallen three points in the last three months.
The minimum wage will increase by 54 euros from January
Economy: without the tax cuts the CPI would be 3.4%
According to the Ministry of Economy, the December IPC data “show the effectiveness of economic policy measures so that inflation maintains its downward trend”, which is also allowing “that wages continue to gain purchasing power and Spanish companies greater competitiveness, even in the difficult international context”. Without the tax cuts that were applied in 2023 to ease the effects of rising prices, inflation in December would have been 3.4%, three tenths above the general rate. The Fundació de les Caixes d’Estalvis, Funcas predicts that the rate will increase in January to 3.3% and that it will evolve with ups and downs throughout 2024, so that the annual average will be 3.2% .
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