Madrid (EFE).- The price of a shopping basket made up of products with reduced VAT has risen 2.93% in March compared to January, the month in which the Government measure came into force to try to contain inflation, according to an analysis carried out by the Association of Financial Users (Asufin).
Compared to the month of December 2022, prices are 9.5%, the study abounds, which was released this Wednesday and which analyzes the price of the shopping basket in five large stores: Mercadona, El Corte Inglés , Carrefour, DIA and Alcampo.
The shopping basket configured for the analysis is composed of a kilo of normal flour, six liters of whole milk, a dozen eggs, a kilo of bananas, a kilo of apples, a kilo of spinach, a kilo of round rice, three kilos of potatoes, one liter of virgin olive oil, one liter of sunflower oil, half a kilo of noodles and half a kilo of macaroni.
On January 2, when the Government began to apply the VAT reduction from 10 to 5% for pasta and oils and eliminated it for foods considered basic, the cost of this basket was 31.09 euros at Mercadona; 29.98 in El Corte Inglés; 31.73 in Carrefour; 26.08 in Alcampo; and 31.68 in DAY.
The resulting average that month was 30.11 euros, compared to the 30.48 euros on average last March 27, when in the last price review carried out by Asufin the cost of the basket with those same foods stood at 30 .63 euros in Mercadona; 30.97 in El Corte Inglés; 32.89 in Carrefour; 27.69 in Alcampo; and 30.20 euros in DAY.
Prices of eggs, sunflower oil and bananas fall
Regarding the price of certain products and in comparison with last February, the items that have fallen the most in price have been eggs (-7.25%), sunflower oil (-6.75%) and bananas (-5.93%).
Those that have risen the most have been potatoes (22%), followed by rice (6.22%).
For the president of Asufin, Patricia Suárez, the government’s measures are demonstrating their “ineffectiveness.”
Suárez considers that “it is very difficult for the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) to monitor the margins and establish a compliance channel for what the VAT reduction intends: to make the basket of basic products cheaper.”
In addition, he has expressed that “these are measures without graduation, which benefit both the one who buys the most and the one who buys the least” and understands that “the Government has the means to determine who needs direct help to combat the pernicious effects of inflation.”
