This was due to the fact that the lower growth of electricity prices, non-energy industrial goods (NEIG), and processed foods offset the higher inflation of unprocessed foods and motor and heating fuel, while services inflation remained stable. In month-on-month terms, the general CPI fell by 0.4% in February, the same as in February 2016.
Energy product prices grew in February by 16.8% year-on-year, after the 17.5% growth recorded in January. This decline was due to the slower growth rate of electricity prices, which after growing by 26.2% year-on-year in January fell by 18.9% in February, partially offset by rising motor and heating fuel prices, up by 2.5 points to 16.4%.
Food prices grew by 1.7% in February, six tenths more than in January, driven by unprocessed food prices which at 5.4% doubled January's year-on-year growth rate. Particularly noteworthy was the performance of fresh fruit prices (from shrinking by 0.3% year-on-year in January to rising by 7.6% in February), and pulses and fresh vegetables (up by 4.3 points to 22.2%). Processed food, drinks and tobacco prices remained stable in February, versus the 0.3% rise posted in January.
Core inflation (which excludes the most volatile elements of CPI, fresh food and energy) eased by one tenth in February to 1%, as a result of the deceleration of processed food prices (down three tenths to zero change) and non-energy industrial goods prices (down two tenths to 0.6%), while services inflation remained steady at 1.3%.
In month-on-month terms, the CPI dropped by 0.4% in February, the same figure as in February 2016. Broken down by components, energy product prices fell by 3.5%, after falling by 2.9% the previous year; services prices grew by 0.3%, after increasing by 0.4% in February 2016; NEIG prices shrank by 0.5%, two tenths more than in February the previous year, and food prices increased by 0.2% versus the 0.4% drop in February 2016.
Within the food category, prices of unprocessed foods rose by a 0.9% month-on-month in February (-1.6% in the same month of 2016), while processed food prices fell by 0.2% (versus a 0.1% rise the previous year).
In February, the year-on-year CPI was positive in all autonomous regions, with the biggest rise being posted by Castile and Leon (up two tenths, to 3.6%). The other price rises, by one tenth, were posted by Castile-La Mancha (3.4% in February), Galicia (3.3%), Cantabria (3.2%) and Asturias (3.1%). In another five autonomous regions, prices dropped by one tenth compared with the previous month: La Rioja (3% year-on-year in February), the Regions of Murcia and Valencia (2.9% each), Extremadura (2.8%) and Madrid (2.6%). In the rest of the regions, inflation remained unchanged from January.
The year-on-year constant tax CPI rate for February stood at 3%, the same as the general CPI.
The INE has also published the harmonised CPI (CPIA) for February 2017, with a year-on-year variation of 3%, up by one tenth on January's figure. Meanwhile, the rate advanced by Eurostat for the Eurozone was 2%, versus 1.8% the previous month, giving rise to an inflation variable favourable to Spain over the Eurozone by one point, after the differential of 1.1 points in January.
INE