Inflation remains lower in Catalonia compared to the rest of Spain.

Catalonia was the second autonomous community with the lowest inflation in December and, for the tenth consecutive month, maintained a cost of living increase below the Spanish average, according to data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI, the indicator that measures the cost of living) published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Thus, last month prices in Catalonia increased by 2.5% compared to December 2014. As for the country as a whole, the INE has finally confirmed that the cost of living rose by 2.9%, as previously reported. It already made provisional progress two weeks agoFinally, the CPI in Spain rose by 2.7% last year. However, between November and December, the increase was 0.3% in both Catalonia and Spain. Food, electricity, and leisure and tourism products saw the biggest price increases in December, as is typical for a month marked by the Christmas holidays. On the other hand, fuel prices pushed the CPI down, according to the INE (National Statistics Institute). Meat and egg prices skyrocketed.

December data shows that the rising cost of meat, especially beef, and eggs persists, two of the items in the shopping basket that saw the largest price increases in 2025. Specifically, in December, beef in Spain was 17.2% more expensive than a year earlier, while the cost of eggs had increased by 3%. The rise in the price of beef, as well as lamb (in this case, the annual increase in December was 7.4%), began several years ago as part of the general increase in the cost of living caused by the economic recovery after the pandemic and the energy crisis stemming from the Russian invasion. However, by mid-2024, the price of beef and lamb in Spain continued to rise steadily, even though overall inflation had become much more moderate.

One of the reasons is the liberalization of European meat imports by Arab countries, especially Morocco, which has led to a significant portion of Spain's production being sent to these countries. This liberalization has affected lamb and beef, the two most consumed meats in countries with a Muslim tradition, where, for religious and cultural reasons, the majority of the population does not eat pork.

As for eggs, avian flu has driven up the cost of this staple food, which in December was 31.3% higher than the price in the same month of 2024.

However, while eggs and meat continue to rise in price, December has shown a different trend. The adverse weather conditions and drought of recent years decimated olive groves in Catalonia and Andalusia, both regions with the highest olive production in Spain. The shortage drove up prices, but with the return of the rains, the latest harvests returned to normal levels, and by December prices had fallen 31.6% compared to the previous year.