(Reuters) – Spanish national consumer prices rose 8.7% year-on-year in May, up from 8.3% in April, with core inflation hitting its highest since 1995, official data showed on Friday.
The National Statistics Institute data confirmed a preliminary report late last month.
It showed fuel prices had increased 15% year-on-year, with prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages such as fruits, bread and meat at their highest in Spain in 28 years, with an annual increase of 11%.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was at its highest since 1995 at 4.9% year-on-year, up from 4.4% in April, the National Statistics Institute data showed.
Easing energy prices had brought the Spanish inflation rate lower to 8.3% in April after it hit a 40-year high of 9.8% in March, but prices resumed escalating in May.
The economic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have sent inflation rates soaring worldwide since Feb. 24, though the Spanish government expects a slowdown in the coming months.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank ended its long-running stimulus and said it would raise interest rates next month for the first time since 2011, followed by a potentially larger move in September.
“The forecast is to return to more normal levels next year and that there will be a rapid deceleration in prices in the second part of the year,” Economy Minister Nadia Calvino told Spanish regional TV channel TVG.
Spanish European Union-harmonised prices rose 8.5% from a year earlier, up from 8.3% in April, and in line with the Reuters forecast of 8.5%.
(Reporting by Marta Serafinko and Christina Thykjaer; Editing by Inti Landauro and Catherine Evans)
