At the beginning of 2023, the Spanish Government introduced a new measure to combat inflation, the abolition or reduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) on certain products intended for basic consumption. In fact, the VAT applied to bread, milk, egg or vegetables has been cancelled and reduced to 5% for both oil and pasta. The measure will be in place until June of this year.

However, the FACUA consumer association has questioned the effectiveness of this intervention. According to a recent study, some products with reduced VAT were increased by 20% in February. The increase in commodity prices has not paralysed. Fruits, vegetables, pasta and olive oil are the most expensive foods.

On the occasion of the first week of January, FACUA denounced eight supermarket chains for not applying VAT cuts. The association analysed the prices of 676 products between 30 December last year and 3 January this year, detecting in 52 products the fraud of not lowering prices.

The National Statistics Institute (INE) has reported that since December 2022, general inflation data have increased for three consecutive months. This breaks down the downward trend since summer.