The Bank of Spain calculates that the measures of the government’s anti-crisis plan prevented the CPI rate from reaching 13.5% for August
On April 1, the government began taking a series of measures to mitigate the effects of the war in Ukraine, which have limited inflation in Spain despite the high level we are at. A curtailment that reached 3 percentage points above the August CPI rate, which the National Institute of Statistics (INE) calculated at 10.4%.
In other words, without these measures, including the bonus of 20 cents per liter of fuel, the maximum rent revision limit at 2%, the gas capping mechanism in electricity production (Iberian exception), the reduction of VAT on electricity from 10% to 5% and the freezing of the price of butane, inflation would have risen to a staggering 13.5% in August, the Bank of Spain assures.
Those who contributed most to this curtailment were those related to energy: the Iberian gas mechanism, the reduction in VAT on electricity and the fuel discount. In fact, the agency’s quarterly report shows that just with the 5% VAT on electricity and the limit on gas, the CPI rate is reduced by more than 2 percentage points. Virtually the rest of the contribution comes from the fuel bonus, ngel Gavilán, the director of the statistics office, said Wednesday.
This data is in line with what the government calculated a few months ago. Economic Vice President Nadia Calviño has confirmed more than once that the measures taken by the executive in its anti-crisis plan have helped to keep inflation at 3.5 points.
There is a further series of measures, which started in September and which also have an impact on inflation, such as the free commute of commuter and medium-distance trains and the reduction of VAT on natural gas to 5%. According to the Bank of Spain, these support measures have already been reflected in the moderation of the CPI for September – which fell to 9% from 10.4% in August – but the specific effects will have to be analyzed later. In addition, the free Renfe subscriptions will also have an impact next year because the cabinet has decided to extend this measure until the whole of 2023.
Source: La Verdad
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