The Government summons the super to analyze the prices in full escalation of food despite the VAT reduction

The Government moves token after knowing the final inflation data for January published this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

applied to part of the basic shopping basket, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food plans to call supermarkets to a meeting that, foreseeably , will be held on February 27.

The department headed by

planned to convene the

with the CPI data for January on the table to analyze the impact of the drop in VAT from 4% to 0% for common bread, bread-making flour, milk produced by any animal species, cheeses, eggs, fruits, vegetables, legumes, tubers and cereals, and a cut of 10% to 5% in VAT on pasta and oils.

This Observatory, which includes the distribution and food industry employers' associations, as well as professional agricultural and consumer organizations, is a collegiate body attached to the General Directorate of the Food Industry whose functions include monitoring and evaluation of business practices employed by value chain operators;

and the factors causing their evolution in the different links;

and develop proposals for action tending to

The meeting, which

has not yet been officially called by the Ministry, according to sources consulted by EL MUNDO that point, however, to

.

From the Ministry, for its part, they clarify that the minister had already planned to convene the Observatory at the time the CPI data for January was known.

Well, the data is already here.

As published by the INE this morning, the CPI rose last January to 5.9%, from the 5.7% registered in December.

A rise that is mainly explained by the

It is striking that food prices continued to rise in the first month of the VAT cut on some basic products approved by the Government.

Specifically, food and non-alcoholic beverages became more expensive by 0.4% compared to December and, in the interannual rate,

, although this rate slowed down compared to the previous month, since in December was 15.7%.

Impact of the VAT reduction

However, the Ministry of Economic Affairs points out that

Indeed, the data reflects a general decrease in foods in which the tax reduction from 4% to 0% has been applied, such as bread (-0.2%), milk (-1.5%), eggs (-1.5%), fresh fruits (-4.2%), legumes (-1.1%), potatoes (-1%), flour (-2.3%) and cheese (-0.7 %);

as well as the reduction from 10% to 5% in olive oil (-1.2%) and pasta (-3.5).

However, the prices of

, which has meant that, overall, the shopping basket in the supermarket has become more expensive for families.

Rice, for example, has become more expensive by 3.7% in a single month;

and meat and fish, which the Government decided to leave out of the basic foods affected by the VAT cut, have also risen (veal, 0.6% and pork, 0.4%, while fresh fish increased it has shot up 4.7% compared to the price it marked in December.

Sugar, salt and spices, baby food, coffee, mineral water or soft drinks have also risen.

And in the face of this escalation, the employers in the distribution sector are already putting together the argument to ask the Government to expand the catalog of foods with reduced VAT, with the focus placed, above all, on meat and fish.

It is the best recipe, they insist, to contain inflation in a context of falling sales volume that has already put supermarkets on guard due to their tight margins.

The employers are pending Minister Planas, their main interlocutor within the Government, who

.

On the agenda: the status and situation of the effective application of the Common Agricultural Policy for the period 2023 to 2027, the situation of the food chain and the priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

in the turn of questions.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more