Veterinary services price rises in January after several months of stability

Since May 2022, the annual difference in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for veterinary and other services for pets had not reached 3.4%, as it has done in January 2023, the latest month for which the National Statistics Institute (INE) has provided data today. This represents an increase of four tenths with respect to the previous record, from December 2022, a slight rise but one that breaks with the trend of previous months, in which prices had remained stable or had increased at a lower rate. In this way, the difference between the general CPI and the CPI for veterinary services is reduced by two tenths of a percentage point compared with the previous month.

Where prices seem to have relaxed somewhat is in pet products, which show an annual change of 19.2%, only one tenth of a percentage point above that recorded in December 2022.

In general terms, the annual rate of the CPI in January is 5.9%, two tenths of a percentage point higher than that recorded the previous month. According to the INE, three groups have had the greatest influence on the increase in the annual rate:

• Clothing and footwear, with a rate of 3.6 %, almost two points higher than the previous month. This evolution is due to the fact that the prices of all its components fell less this month than in January 2022.
• Transport, which places its rate at 5.6 %, more than two points higher than last month, due to the rise in fuel and lubricant prices, higher than in January of the previous year.
• Communications, whose variation stood at 2.3%, more than four points higher than that recorded in December, due to the fact that telephone services rose more than in January 2022.

For their part, there have been two groups with a negative variation:

• Housing, which decreases its variation by almost four points, to -8.4%. Of note in this behaviour was the drop in electricity, which was greater than in January of last year.
• Leisure and culture, whose annual change of 2.5%, more than one point lower than that recorded in December, is due to the fall in the prices of package holidays, which is greater than that recorded in January 2022.

The annual rate of change of core inflation (headline index excluding unprocessed food and energy products) increases by five tenths of a percentage point to 7.5%. This is the highest since December 1986 and brings its difference with the headline CPI to more than one and a half percentage points.