Catalonia keeps inflation below the national level for nine consecutive months

Catalonia registered a lower annual price increase than the Spanish average in November, placing the Catalan inflation rate below the national average for the ninth consecutive month, according to data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI, the indicator that measures the cost of living for families) published this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics. Thus, last month the CPI in Catalonia increased by 2.6% compared to the same month in 2014, a rise that in the case of Spain as a whole was 3%, as The INE itself had already announced this two weeks agoIf we compare price increases with respect to October, the rise was 0.3% in Catalonia and 0.2% in Spain. In total, since 2020 (the year the COVID-19 pandemic began), the cost of living has evolved in parallel in Catalonia and in Spain as a whole, but in recent months inflation has been higher in Spain. This has meant that, between January 2020 and November 2025, prices have ended up growing slightly less for Catalan families. Thus, the increase in prices of consumer goods and services from the beginning of 2020 until last month was 22.1% in Catalonia and 23.4% in Spain, a difference of 1.3 percentage points. Clothes go up, electricity goes down

The largest increases were in clothing. Specifically, between October and November, clothing and footwear became 5.2% more expensive in Catalonia. At the other end of the spectrum, electricity and natural gas, and the price of tourism services, such as hotels, pulled the indicator down, with price decreases of 0.5% and 1%, respectively. Regarding food, one of the items that most affects household budgets, meat continued to rise in price, especially beef and lamb, with increases of 0.7% and 3.1% in Catalonia in a single month, respectively. Therefore, the cost of these two types of meat maintains the upward trend already experienced last year, and in November, beef was 12.7% more expensive than a year earlier, and lamb was 7.2% more expensive.

Eggs also continued their price climb, rising 5.2% compared to the previous month and an annual increase of 20.8%.

In contrast, pork became 0.8% cheaper month-on-month. This drop is expected to be even greater when the data for December is released, as the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in Collserola, which has caused pork prices to plummet in wholesale markets across the country, had not yet been confirmed in November.

Confirmation of the pension increase

The confirmation by the INE of the November inflation data allows confirm the increase in pensions for 2026which will ultimately be 2.7%. The Spanish government's calculation is based on the average inflation rate between December 2024 and November 2025 (inclusive), so current data definitively validates the pension increase announced by the Ministry of Social Security. The current average retirement pension (€1,481.35 in 14 payments) will rise to €1,511.50 next year, an increase of €572, starting next January.