Only 3 out of 10 products affected by the VAT drop are cheaper than in December

"We still do not have detailed data on how the price of food has evolved in January, but the purchase of my house already reflects that drop in prices."

This is how forceful the Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, showed yesterday after the people's deputy,

, reproached him during the control session to the Government that "the shopping basket is through the roof » and that «prices are not coming down».

A little over a month has passed since the abolition of VAT on basic foods came into force and the reduction by half of others such as oil or pasta.

A measure with which the Government intends to alleviate the effects of

, which in 2022 shot up the price of food to 15.7%, but whose effect no longer seems to be noticeable in the pocket of the Spanish.

«The advance data for January, which indicates, is a drop in the general CPI and also in the core.

What we have to see is what is the impact of the last package of measures that we approved in December and that entered at the beginning of the year, “Calviño said yesterday.

Since last January 1 and for the next five months, products such as

,

,

,

or

, items that are considered essential in the shopping basket of any Spaniard, have gone from taxing a 4 % to 0%;

while

have gone from 10% to 5%.

A measure that was not well received by certain sectors such as meat or fishing, for not being included and that the deputy Rojas also reproached the vice president.

However, despite Calviño's statement, there are still increases in many of these foods.

EL MUNDO

has analyzed a total of 113 items subject to the tax reduction on two specific dates: December 27, the day before the Government announced the measure, and February 4, the last day with available information.

, the Spanish platform specializing in Big Data, collects daily the price of all the products available in the catalog of three supermarkets:

,

and

.

The conclusions drawn bear little resemblance to the statements made by Minister Calviño who stated that "like all Spaniards, I look for offers and buy seasonal fruit and I have seen that where VAT has dropped, prices have dropped."

Of the more than 100 articles analyzed,

.

Specifically, a kilo of salad tomatoes from Carrefour, a mesh of 5 kilos of potatoes from Mercadona and

The drop in VAT is diluted in the super

he kiwi from Dia are the ones that have registered the biggest reduction in their prices;

while the green beans, eggs and avocados sold by the Valencian giant are almost two euros more expensive than in December.

In total, there are 45 products that consumers already buy at a higher price than a month ago despite the VAT reduction.

In addition, in monetary terms, it is more money that consumers have to pay for certain products that have increased in price, than the euros that are saved by those that have registered lower prices.

In this sense, where the increase has been most noticeable has been in eggs and bread, almost 10% on average in the 3 supermarkets, followed by fruit and vegetables: 3.62%;

dairy products, 3.15%;

legumes and rice, 1.4% and oil and pasta, 0.93%.

Already in January, as soon as the government initiative came into force, the main consumer organizations such as

or

warned that this situation could occur and that therefore it would be necessary to be aware of possible irregularities.

In fact, Facua itself denounced seven large chains for not passing on the VAT reduction to all affected foods.

The pressure on the supermarket sector reached its peak two weeks ago, when members of the Government such as Ione Belarra came to accuse the businessman Juan Roig, owner of Mercadona, of taking advantage of the crisis, calling him a "ruthless capitalist."

The

had to issue an unusual statement at the end of the week asking for respect for businessmen after the increasingly intense attacks that came from the ranks of United We Can, a member of the Executive.

"From the Government we have not stopped acting and hopefully at some point the PP will support us in this fight against inflation, which is already bearing fruit," Calviño said in Congress and emphasized the new aid to farmers that he adopted the Executive last week to offset the increase in the cost of fertilizers, "one of the cost factors that leads to an increase in food" and in aid and food programs for the most vulnerable groups.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• Mercadona

• Carrefour

• United We Can

• Juan Roig

• OCU

• PP

• Nadia Calvino