(Reuters) – Energy costs lifted Spanish manufacturing prices in 2024 following a contraction in the previous year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Friday.
Manufacturing prices rose 2.3% last year after a 6.3% decline in the previous year, when energy prices fell from a peak in 2022 prompted by the war in Ukraine, INE said in its monthly report.
Prices of oil, gas and electricity rose 7.5% in Spain in 2024 after contracting by 20.6% in 2023, INE said.
Following turmoil on energy markets in 2021 and 2022 caused by the COVID pandemic and then the start of the Ukraine war, industrial price growth in Spain peaked at 47% in March 2022. Companies tend to pass on industrial price rises to customers, ultimately fuelling inflation.
Spain’s annual inflation rate has picked up in recent months, reaching 2.8% in December after having eased to 1.5% in September.
Industrial prices rose 0.9% in December from November and INE revised up the year-on-year November price increase to 1.2% from an initial 0.9% increase.
(Reporting by Tiago Brandao; Editing by Inti Landauro and Gareth Jones)
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