MADRID (AFX) - Consumer price data for April to be released tomorrow is expected to show a 0.4-0.5 pct increase from March and be up 3.9-4.0 pct from a year earlier, according to economists' forecasts.
In March, consumer prices climbed 0.4 pct from February and were up 3.9 pct from a year earlier, in line with most analysts' estimates.
Beta Capital chief economist Felix Gonzalez said he is looking for the headline inflation rate to rise 0.4 pct in April from March, on a par with the month-on-month increase registered the previous month. He expects upward pressure on processed foods and non-energy related industrial goods' prices "to be offset by a more moderate growth in services, energy-related goods and fresh food prices." In a research note, Caixa Catalunya said that while the trend in fresh food prices will be softer in April, Spain's inflation rate will remain "very much higher than the euro zone average," mainly due to the 4.5 pct year-on-year increase in services prices and the 4.6 pct hike in fuel prices.
"The Easter factor will have affected some of the key CPI components last month, including hotels and leisure prices," MMS Standard & Poor's economist Jose Garcia-Zarate said.
"I'm also not sure to what extent fresh food prices will have eased," he said, noting that the March producer prices data "showed a strong food component, which is likely to have spilled over into April."
"For those reasons, I'm a bit more pessimistic and looking for a 0.5 pct month-on-month increase in the headline rate," he said.