(Reuters) -Spain’s EU-harmonised annual inflation fell to 2.4%, its slowest pace in a year, thanks to lower fuel and food prices, preliminary data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Thursday.
The rate was lower than the 2.9% registered in the period through July and lower than the 2.5% expected by analysts polled by Reuters.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile fresh food and energy prices, was 2.7% year-on-year, down from 2.8% in the period through July, the INE data showed.
Spain’s national inflation was 2.2% year-on-year in August, down from 2.8% in July, INE said.
The slowing of price rises was driven by a base effect from fuel prices, which had increased sharply in August 2023. To a lesser extent, the fall in food prices also contributed to the easing of the trend, INE said.
The inflation slowdown comes as the country’s economy has expanded faster than expected. In the second quarter of 2024, the economy grew 2.9% year-on-year, outpacing the euro zone.
Euro zone countries have suffered from persistently high inflation over the past three years, following the end of the COVID pandemic and the rise in energy prices caused by the conflict in Ukraine.
Spain implemented a series of measures worth billion euros to curb inflation. Most of them were lifted by mid-year. One of the few measures still in place is the 0% value-added tax rate on food.
(Reporting by Tiago Brandao and Belén Carreño, editing by Inti Landauro and Toby Chopra)
