The inflation differential with the EU widens and Spain already exceeds the European average by two points

The

with the rest of the European Union continued to widen in March, when prices rose by 9.8% in Spain compared to the

in the rest of the countries.

This differential, which is growing month after month -in February it was 1.4 points and in January, 0.6-

, which makes them less competitive in foreign trade, and

in terms of relative.

With last month's price increase, the highest in year-on-year terms that has occurred in Spain since 1985, our country ranks

according to data published this Thursday by

.

Spain has risen four places in the classification, since

with the highest price increase.

(with inflation of 15.6% in March),

(14.8%),

(11.9%)

are ahead in price increases

,

(11.7%),

(11.5%),

(10.5%) and

(10.2%).

The rise in prices in the great powers was very high in March, but much more moderate than in Spain.

Our closest neighbors, for example,

experienced

, respectively, practically half that of Spain.

Particularly striking is the case of Portugal, which, belonging to the energy island of the Iberian Peninsula, has managed to control its price rise.

In

, prices rose

three points less than in Spain, and in

, which is more exposed to gas consumption from Russia, they rose

All these countries register

In the EU as a whole, prices rose by 7.8% year-on-year on average in March, compared to 6.2% in which they were revalued in February compared to the same month of the previous year.

, in March 2021,

, as recalled by the community statistics agency.

The data shows how the pandemic, in the first instance, and the war, later, have aggravated the problem of inflation throughout the world.

Year-on- year inflation

and only fell in two:

(from 9.5% year-on-year in February to 9.3% in March) and

(from 7% in February to 6% in March).

Energy was the main reason

inflation soared in March, with a contribution to the index of 4.36 percentage points, followed by

(1.2 points),

(1.07 points ).

) and non-energy

(0.9 points).

Spain registers the highest rise in a month

In intermonthly terms, comparing the prices registered in March with respect to those of February,

3.9

according to Eurostat.

The measurement that this agency makes of the prices leaves a higher monthly inflation than that of the National Institute of Statistics (

), which reported an increase in prices of 3% in March compared to the previous month.

Given these data, analysts from the British consulting firm

have already warned that "inflation may continue to rise in the coming months and that" it has not yet peaked ", so they

"

. We think that the year-on-year change in oil prices has probably peaked, which suggests that fuel inflation will soon recede. Something similar is happening with gas prices and household energy bills...

And the war has also pushed up

, with accelerating producer prices pointing for food inflation to reach around 5.5% in the middle of the year", they warn.

For this reason, they foresee that underlying inflation will continue to rise in the coming months and that general inflation will reach

in the Eurozone average -in March it is 7.4%-.

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