The vice president defends the VAT reduction, which has been applied since the beginning of the year, because it benefits prices, although the real impact on the inflation rate is still unknown
The economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, wanted to carry out a practical exercise, far from official statistics and records, to defend the VAT reduction on food that the Government approved since the beginning of the year: «The purchase of my house already reflects that reduction Of the prices. It is true that, like all Spaniards, I look for offers and buy seasonal fruit and I have seen that prices have gone down for those products where VAT has dropped. And that is the information that the distribution groups also transmit to us », she stressed in Congress.
The minister has insisted that food prices are falling as a result of the VAT reduction for certain products approved by the Government and in force since January 1. She has done it at the request of the questions launched by the PP.
However, there is still no official data certifying a reduction in the price of food during the month of January. The only statistics available, from the INE, is that of the inflation rate, which stood at 5.8%, one tenth more than the previous month. For its part, core inflation, which excludes energy products and unprocessed food, rose to 7.5%. Although this advance data did not specify how much food has increased at the beginning of 2023. It will be on the 15th when the INE publishes that definitive statistic.
Although Calviño has acknowledged that inflation was the biggest economic problem last year, he has reiterated that, thanks to the measures adopted by the Government, it is being “contained”, with a drop of five points in five months that has made the CPI Spanish is the lowest in the European Union and the Eurozone. And he has assured that food prices are falling and that the advance data for January “indicates a drop in the general CPI and also in the core.”
The vice president stressed that last week the Executive adopted new aid measures for farmers to compensate them for the increase in the cost of fertilizers, “which is one of the cost factors that leads to a rise in food”, while it has reinforced aid and food programs for the most vulnerable groups. “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,” she said.
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