PROPERTY SEARCH

Date Published: 22/03/2023

ARCHIVED - More than half of businesses in Spain plan to raise their prices during 2023

ARCHIVED ARTICLE -

44% of outlets across Spain admit that they’ve already been forced to hike up their charges

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - More than half of businesses in Spain plan to raise their prices during 2023

As inflation continues to put pressure on businesses across Spain, some 44% admit to having already raised the sale prices of their products and services in the first three months and more than half said they plan a hike sometime this year, according to a survey conducted by the Bank of Spain.

Around 15,000 companies participated in the study and while price rises were evident across the board, they were “more intense” in services such as information and communication and administrative activities, although the average consumer will certainly have noticed a sharp increase in supermarkets too.

Spain is becoming more expensive as businesses of all kinds struggle to keep their heads above water, with seven out of ten companies acknowledging that their production costs rose steadily in the first quarter, while 74% believe their labour costs will go up in the coming months.

Businesses aren’t far off with their calculations, since the CPI continued to grow, albeit slowly, in January and February, despite the Spanish government’s crisis measures, which included a drastic reduction in VAT on certain staple food items.

According to the experts, the CPI for March will be key in determining how pricing will go for the rest of the year, since real year-on-year comparisons can be made between months when the war in Ukraine was already underway. Although Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory on February 24, the first full month in which the true consequences of the conflict were felt was March.

In any case, the Bank of Spain predicts that production costs will relax in the next quarter, returning to the end of 2021 levels, which can only be good news for consumers.

In other news: Two in ten petrol stations in Spain are now low cost

Image: Pexels

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