Prices fall in Spain for sixth straight month
Friday, August 28, 2009 @ 6:34 PM
MADRID (AFP) - Spanish consumer prices fell for the sixth consecutive month in August, although at a slower rate, dropping 0.8 percent year-on-year, official data showed Friday.
In July, prices plunged 1.4 percent.
That followed falls of 1.0 percent in June, 0.9 percent in May, 0.2 percent in April and 0.1 percent in March, which was the first 12-month drop since the INE statistics office began tracking inflation in 1961.
Spanish inflation, which has generally been higher than the eurozone average over the past decade, is slowing more sharply than the rest of the region as its economy slumps.
However, Spain's socialist government insisted the country is not entering a period of deflation, characterised by a prolonged period of falling prices, which can be harmful to the economy as it can lead consumers and companies to hold back on spending as they wait for even better deals.
"The reduction of six decimal points indicates that the negative inflation we have seen in recent months is not the result of a deflation scenario" but caused by high prices in early 2008, notably of oil, said secretary of state for the economy Jose Manuel Campa.
Spain entered its first recession in 15 years at the end of 2008 and unemployment has soared as the global credit crunch worsened a correction that was already underway in its once booming housing sector.
The figures published Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE) are provisional. It will release final figures for August on September 11, which will also include the month-on-month change.
Source: Yahoo Finance