MADRID, 25 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Industrial prices fell 4.5% in April in relation to the same month of 2022, a rate more than three points lower than that registered in March, as reported this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
With the year-on-year decline in April, inflation in the industrial sector chains two months of negative rates after ending a period of 26 consecutive months of increases in March, in which it reached double-digit rates for more than 20 months .
The fall in industrial prices registered in April is due to the drop experienced by energy, which cut its rate by almost four points, to -20.5%, due to lower prices in gas production and oil refining.
This second month of negative industrial inflation is also due to the setbacks registered in intermediate goods, which fell by 1.5% in April, and in non-durable consumer goods, which decreased its rate by two points, to 11.2% .
According to the INE, without counting energy, industrial prices showed an interannual increase of 4.2% last April, a figure more than eight and a half points higher than the general rate.
By activities, the biggest price increases compared to April 2022 occurred in the manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products (13.9%), in the manufacture of beverages (11.9%), in the food industry (11.5%), which accumulates 16 months with double-digit increases.
The only year-on-year decreases in prices were registered in April in coke ovens and petroleum refining (-22.8%), electricity and gas supply (-20.3%), metallurgy (-14.2%) and the chemical industry (-7.9%).
PRICES DROP 2% MONTHLY IN APRIL
In the monthly rate (April over March), industrial prices fell by 2%, in line with the 2.2% decrease experienced in the previous month.
Energy was the driving sector behind this monthly decline in industrial prices, registering a fall of 5.9%, followed by intermediate goods, which fell by 0.8%. At the other extreme, non-durable consumer goods raised their prices by 0.2% in April compared to the previous month.
The activities where prices increased the most in a monthly rate and which had the greatest impact were meat processing and preservation (1.8%); the processing and preservation of fish (1.2%); the manufacture of motor vehicles (0.9%) and the processing of preserving fruits and vegetables (0.7%).
On the other hand, the most pronounced monthly decreases in prices and with the greatest impact on the index were registered by the production of electricity (-7.4%); gas production (-5%) and oil refining (-4.7%).
FOUR COMMUNITIES WITH POSITIVE RATES
The annual rate of the industrial price index decreased in April in 14 autonomous communities and increased in the remaining three, according to Statistics. The greatest decreases with respect to the February rate occurred in the Basque Country, Catalonia and Murcia, with falls of 4.8; 4.4 and 3.8 points, respectively.
At the end of April, four communities presented positive industrial price rates. The highest annual rates occurred in Extremadura (4.4%) and La Rioja (2.3%), and the most moderate, in Navarra (2%) and Castilla y León (0.7%).
In contrast, 13 regions presented negative rates in their industrial prices at the end of April, especially Asturias (-19.2%), the Balearic Islands (-16.5%) and the Canary Islands (-15.7%).
