Spain's Industrial Prices Surge Amid Rising Energy Costs
(Reuters) - Energy costs lifted Spanish industrial prices in February to their highest level in two years, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Tuesday.
Over the 12 months through February 2025, industrial prices rose 6.6%, up from a 2.6% increase in the 12 months through January.
Annual price variations at factory gates rose for the past five months in Spain and stood at their highest level since February 2023 when they were up 8%.
Energy prices rose 22% year-on-year, almost 14 percentage points higher than in January, driven by prices of electricity, and, to a lesser extent, gas, which had fallen in February 2024.
Industrial prices rose 1.2% in February from January, INE said.
Companies tend to transfer industrial price increases to customers, ultimately fuelling consumer inflation.
Spain's 12-month national consumer prices rose 3.0% in the 12 months through February, up from 2.9% in the period through January. March inflation data are due on Friday.
(Reporting by Joao Manuel Mauricio in Gdansk, Editing by Inti Landauro and Ed Osmond)
