Asturias was the autonomous community where industrial prices fell the most in July compared to the same month in 2022, down 19.5%, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). The drop was more than double the 8.4% recorded across Spain.
The overall drop in industrial inflation in the country, down four tenths compared to June, According to INE, this is due to lower electricity costs and a lower increase in gas production prices compared to the previous year. With the fall, Spanish manufacturing prices have chained five months of negative annual rates after March ended a 26-month period of gains.
In the specific case of Asturias, the decrease was mainly due to the deterioration in the supply of electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning, which decreased by 37.1% compared to the same month of 2022; the reduction was 6.6%; and manufacturing: 6.4%. For their part, water supply, sewage disposal, waste disposal, and decontamination activities became significantly cheaper, namely by 2.7%.
In terms of the types of goods produced in the region, the largest decrease was again recorded for energy (-36.2%), followed by intermediate goods (-12.2%), consumer goods (-10%), and those of the team (-0,2%).
At the national level, the decrease in energy production last year was 26.2%, which is due to the lower increase in gas production prices and the decrease in the cost of production, transportation, and distribution of electric energy. In contrast, refined oil prices rose in July of this year compared to the setback they experienced in the same month of 2022.
By sector of activity, the largest price decreases compared to July 2022 were recorded in the coking and oil refining sectors (-33%); electricity and gas supply (-24%); the chemical industry (-15.8%); metallurgy (-12.5%); and the paper industry (-4.7%).
Beverage production (11.1%), on the other hand, recorded the greatest growth compared to the previous year; non-metallic mineral product manufacturing (9.5%); and food processing (9.3%), which ended 18 consecutive months of double-digit gains with a recovery of less than 10% in July.
