Inflation is entrenched in Spain: the same breakfast rises three times more than in France, twice as much as in Italy and 30% more than in Germany
The
rise in prices
in the
supermarket
condemns Spanish families to have to spend much more for the same.
Only in
food
-food and drinks purchased in the purchase-, each person will spend this year
200 euros more on average
if they buy the same products as last year.
For households of two people, the cost goes up by 400 euros, and for large families of five, for example, 1,000 euros more will be needed.
This is the conclusion reached by
Allianz Research
in its latest report on the
impact of inflation on consumption
, although it warns that "
the worst is yet to come
".
The notice comes because although the
price of food
- cereals, vegetables, dairy products, meat or sugar - has risen
22.8% year-on-year in May,
according to data published this Friday by the United Nations Organization for Agriculture and Food (
FAO
, for its acronym in English), the producers have not yet passed on all this increase in their final prices.
This insurer notes that
European households spend between 12% and 25%
of their total consumption on shopping at the
supermarket
.
The proportion is higher the lower the income of each country.
Given that
Spain
ranks twenty-fifth in the Eurostat average net income per household classification, it is assumed that it
is one of the countries with the lowest income
compared to the rest - the Eurozone average is 20,730 euros per household and in Spain it is at 16,043 euros- and that, therefore,
dedicates a greater proportion of its consumption to food.
The proportion, in turn, varies within each country, being even higher in the
most vulnerable households
.
This is the reason why the poorest families have to bear a higher rate of inflation, because they dedicate more resources to basic needs such as paying the energy bill or buying food.
"For some households, more expensive food will only affect their ability to save, for others it
will be a challenge to meet vital needs
," says Allianz.
Food prices are rising because producers'
production costs
- raw materials and energy - rise.
Past experiences of high inflation show that sellers end
up passing on increases of up to 75%,
which would bring the inflation of food and beverages in Spain to
9.5%
in 2022 , that is, an increase of
200 euros per person
.
If sellers transferred 100% of the increase, prices would rise by an average of 13% in the year.
In Europe, on average, the additional cost will be
243 euros per person.
"This increase in food prices is likely to revive debates about a
possible social benefit to alleviate the burden of inflation on the most vulnerable households
," Allianz experts point out.
Precisely, this is an option that has already been proposed in Spain by
the Economic and Social Council,
which, when presenting its 2021 Annual Report last Wednesday, asked the Government for a similar aid for the Minimum Vital Income to compensate for the impact of increases in prices in households with less income.
The Government has not yet declared itself on this possibility but it has advanced that it is going to extend part of the aid approved to
contain the impact of inflation
and that
new policies could be included.
The sellers have not transferred even half of the costs
To date, the Consumer Price Index (
IPC
) accumulates an
average annual rise of 8.1%
.
In May, prices rose by 8.7% in year-on-year terms, according to data advanced by the INE, and
underlying inflation
- which excludes the price of energy products and fresh food and serves as a thermometer to know the contagion effect to the entire consumer basket- rose by
4.9%
, the largest increase since
1995
.
Even so, Allianz experts warn that "
the worst is yet to come for European households
", because "food prices are far from reflecting the rise in the price of raw materials that has occurred in the last 18 months ".
Since the beginning of 2021, food and beverages in Europe have become more expensive by 14%, with very striking increases in daily consumption products such as
oil
(
+53%
on average on the continent),
flour (+28%)
or
pasta (+19%)
.
Despite the fact that these raw materials have suffered this increase, supermarket labels have experienced an average
increase of 6%
.
"This means that sellers have not passed on even half of the cost increase yet."
The rise in food prices has been exacerbated by the
war in Ukraine
.
On the one hand, the rise in energy prices continues its upward path as
sanctions
are approved on Russian oil and gas, since these automatically make both energy sources more expensive.
On the other hand,
both Russia and Ukraine are exporting countries of cereals
, grain, agricultural products and fertilizers, products that have ceased to be on the market, which has caused a rise in the price of their substitutes and of the final products that used them as intermediate goods. .
According to
Funcas
estimates that had already been collected by this means, inflation will affect the pockets of households directly, subtracting
16,700 million euros from their purchasing power in 2022
.
This means that if all Spaniards maintained their 2021 consumption level this year -not only in food, but also in leisure, clothing, transport, housing costs, etc.- they would have to pay 800 euros more per capita.
Of these, at least an additional 200 euros will be used to satisfy basic vital needs.
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