Spain’s October 2024 industrial prices registered a 3.9% drop from a year earlier, according to the National Institute of Statistics, INE. The decline, though sizeable, is less pronounced than the 5.2% decrease seen in September, signaling a cooling trend in the industrial price landscape. The data show how prices charged by manufacturers and the costs of inputs shifted during October, influenced by energy market movements, commodity prices, and production costs across the sector. For INE data users in Europe and North America, the October reading places Spain’s price trajectory in a broader regional context while highlighting country-specific factors that shape inflation within industry.
With October’s reading, Spain’s industrial sector has logged 20 consecutive months of negative inflation after ending March 2023, which closed a stretch of 26 straight months of increases. During that earlier period, prices rose with double-digit momentum for more than twenty years in the sector. The current streak marks a significant shift in the pricing environment, one that matters for producers, policymakers, and investors monitoring Spain’s manufacturing and energy-intensive industries. The data illustrate how price dynamics in the early 2020s have moved away from the peak gains of the prior era toward a more subdued, yet volatile, inflation regime within industry.
The moderation in October’s inflation is linked to energy price movements, which lifted the year-over-year rate by 3.9 percentage points to minus 13% for the energy component. This change mirrors higher costs tied to refining crude oil, a factor that dampens inflation in energy-intensive parts of manufacturing. At the same time, prices for intermediate goods rose, with the year-over-year rate climbing three tenths to minus 1.2%, driven in part by higher costs in the production of precious metals. Taken together, these shifts reveal a careful balance between energy costs and input prices that feed a wide range of industrial activities. INE emphasizes how these components interact to shape the broader inflation picture for the sector, with energy acting as a substantial negative drag and some input prices providing only modest upward pressure on others.
On the downside within the industrial mix, capital goods prices, which cover equipment and machinery used in manufacturing, cooled to 1.8% year over year after a prior pace. This turn reflects sector-specific dynamics such as demand trends, supply chain adjustments, and the pricing environment for durable goods such as motor vehicles. The update suggests that some areas of industry are cooling more quickly than others, even as energy-driven components continue to influence the overall inflation outcome. Market observers watch these sectoral differences to gauge where price pressures may reemerge and how producers might adjust investment and production plans in light of shifting costs.
Excluding energy, the year-over-year rate of industrial prices stood at 0.4% in October, unchanged from September and positioned about 4.3 percentage points above the general index. This distinction between energy-related components and the rest of the industrial basket helps explain the persistence of small positive inflation in many manufacturing segments when energy prices are stripped away. Analysts use this measure to assess core inflation inside industry and to compare it with the broader economy, offering a clearer view of underlying price moves that are less volatile than energy prices themselves. INE notes that the core rate remains higher than the overall index, underscoring the resilience of some input costs even as energy dynamics pull inflation downward in the same period.
From month to month, October shows a slight 0.1% decrease relative to September. The mixed performance reflects divergent movements: energy production prices fall by about 1.4% and the chemical products sector declines by roughly 2.2%, while refiners raise prices by about 2.7% and precious metals production climbs around 2.8%. These short-term shifts illustrate a heterogeneous sector where subsectors move on different paths within a single reporting period. INE provides the monthly decomposition to help observers understand the precise forces behind October’s changes and to anticipate how similar dynamics may unfold next.
Overall, the October figures point to a transitional phase for Spain’s industrial prices. The energy component continues to dampen annual inflation, while shifts in certain input costs support a steadier core rate that remains above the broader index. The findings offer context for policymakers evaluating energy policy, industrial strategy, and price stability, as well as for businesses planning production, pricing, and investment in a changing price environment. INE continues to monitor these indicators to provide signals about the health and evolution of Spain’s industrial economy.