ifo| Somewhat fewer German companies are planning to raise their prices soon than in the previous month, finds the ifo Institute’s latest survey. For the economy as a whole, the ifo price expectations for the coming months fell to 51.5 points in October, down from 53.8 points* in September. Trade and manufacturing in particular are planning fewer increases, while price expectations are rising among service providers and in construction. “The…
CdM | In September, prices eased once again and moved away from double-digit figures. The CPI rate fell 1,6 points year-on-year, more than estimated, according to the final figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE). Underlying inflation also declined, to 6.2%, after 14 months of continued increases. We should recall that the headline inflation rate reached its highest peak since September 1984 in the month of July, when prices rose 10.8%….
The credit rating agency Moody’s has indicated that Spanish companies are the most profitable among the main European countries (United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany) due to their greater ability to raise prices, according to a report published on Thursday. “Although the sample is small, on average these [Spanish] companies have higher profitability at all percentiles, which suggets a greater ability to pass on costs to consumers and offset inflationary…
The INE confirmed yesterday that inflation continues to run rampant: it closed August at 10.5% year-on-year, its highest rate in 38 years. Although this figure is three tenths of a percentage point lower than in July, it is one tenth of a percentage point higher than the figure at the end of last month and is the result of both the rise in electricity prices, which continues despite the cap…
The Second Vice-President of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, plans to meet this Monday with the distribution sector to ask them to limit the prices of certain products in the shopping basket. Díaz will thus put pressure on the sector to “contribute through its business margins to an affordable and quality basket”. But on Friday, the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) advised against this measure, which is “expressly prohibited”…
J.P. Marín-Arrese | Pressed by a skyrocketing headline and core inflation, the ECB took the boldest step in its history when it raised rates by 75 basis points. Further hikes will follow in a desperate attempt to curb the current price spiral. Will they achieve this goal? For all the bombastic claims made by Christine Lagarde, there is good reason to doubt the ECB might solve such an entrenched problem….
Crédito y Caución (Atradius) | High inflation is the current hot economic topic. In June, inflation was running at over 11% in the Netherlands1; for the eurozone it was nearly 9%, which is surely a record. It is also sure that the inflationary bite is being felt, particularly in the purchasing power of lower income groups. The question is, how long will this high inflation last? In recent months, energy…
Spain’s estimated annual Consumer Prices Index (CPI) stood at 10.4% in August, according to an advance of the data from the National Statistics Institute (INE). If this figure is confirmed, it would mean a decline of four-tenths of a percentage point from the 10.8% recorded in July. INE said the trend in inflation in August is mainly due to the fall in fuel prices, which rose a year earlier. And…
Juan Pedro Marín-Arrese | Blaming Putin for the current inflationary bout no longer holds. No one disputes that sanctions aimed at crippling the Russian economy following the aggression on Ukraine have made the prices of vital commodities skyrocket, mainly due to wild speculative movements. Nowadays, we are witnessing sharp falls in raw materials while prices gather further momentum. Thus, claiming we only face a cost shock from such products seems…
The European Commission has not corrected its forecasts with respect to May: growth remains at 4%, close to the Government’s April forecast of 4.3%. The blow comes in 2023, with one of the biggest downward revisions in Europe, of 1.3 percentage points: growth of 2.1%, after the Commission itself estimated months ago that it would be 3.4%. For this period, the government had estimated 3.5% growth three months ago. The…