Economy The CPI smashes records and touches the double digits, standing at 9.8% in March, the highest rate since 1985
The rise in the price of food is a reality: the products in the shopping basket are, on average,
approximately 10% more expensive
than a year ago, according to the latest report by the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) on The shopping cart.
And if it continues like this, in 2022
each household will spend 500 euros more just on
basic food.
The data for the month of March have served the OCU to verify in its price observatory that the aforementioned
increases in food are a reality
: the price of electricity, gas and fuel
shoot up the
CPI
... but basic foods , the products with which the shopping cart is filled every day follow closely behind.
The OCU price observatory collects the evolution of
156 products
including fresh products such as fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, as well as packaged food, drugstore and hygiene products and including both manufacturer brand products and private labels in nine supermarket chains in the area national.
The OCU warns of an average rise of 9.4% in the shopping basket.
84% of the products (131) have increased their price
, compared to only 16% (only 25 prices) that have dropped.
According to data from the OCU study, the products that have risen the most have been
white-label mild olive oil
(53.6%) and
white-label sunflower oil
(49.3%), followed by the
dishwasher bottle
(49.1%) and
margarine
(41.5%).
Next, with rises between 30% and 40% are some
pasta
products ,
bananas from the Canary Islands
and
sliced salmon
.
On the contrary, among the
few decreases
, none reached -10%,
pork tenderloin
is the product that fell the most (-9.4%), followed by
onions
(-8.5%) and various drugstore products and hygiene (private label hand soap, toothpaste, razors and bathroom cleaners) with drops between 4.1% and -8.4%.
The rise did not occur in a uniform way.
According to the
OCU
, in the two and a half months from December 20, 2021 to March 8, 2022, the average rise has been 5.1%.
In other words,
more than half of the increase is due to what has happened in recent months
, which gives an idea of the acceleration that has occurred in the increase in prices and that, "almost in all probability, it will continue in the coming months as a result of the transfer to the prices of the products of the increase in the costs derived from energy".
The increase does not affect all products and categories equally.
In the case of oils, private label oils are the ones that rise the most.
The same thing happens with pantry products.
In dairy and fish, all products rose, while hygiene and drug stores were the only categories where the number of products that fell was significant.
According to OCU calculations, if it continues like this,
the average food expenditure of Spanish families could be about 500 euros
more in 2022 than in previous years.
An extra cost that comes on top of the higher prices of supplies and fuel, to cause more and more families to have difficulty meeting their daily expenses: if in 2021 it was 8% of the population, according to our recent study of family solvency, now that percentage can be increased significantly
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