(Reuters) -Spanish industrial prices fell in March on a monthly basis thanks to cheaper energy as well as lower vegetable oil prices, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Thursday.
Prices at the Spanish factory gates, or the prices as they leave the factory before additional costs are added such as transportation, fell 3.9% in March from February, INE said. That brought down the 12-month rate to 4.9%, down from a revised 6.7% in February, INE said.
The statistics agency attributed most of the decrease to electricity costs, which dropped 19.2% in March, while oil refining and gas production costs fell 6.5% and 3.8%, respectively. Costs of vegetable oils, mainly pressed from olives, fell 3.7%.
Industrial price changes tend to anticipate consumer prices as companies transfer some higher costs to customers, ultimately fuelling inflation.
Spain’s European Union-harmonised 12-month inflation rate came at 2.2% in March from 2.9% in the period through February.
(Reporting by Javi West Larrañaga, editing by Inti Landauro and Bernadette Baum)
Comments