The new municipal waste charges were introduced a few months ago and are already impacting Consumer Price Index (CPI) statistics. This was the most expensive category in October on an annualized basis, according to the latest data published by the National Institute for Statistics (INE). If general inflation rises by an average of 3.1% for the month, already the highest increase so far this year, waste collections will increase tenfold to 30.3%.
Garbage collection led the price increase for the second month in a row, after garbage collection increased by the same percentage (30.3%) in September. City councils had to make the new tax mandatory this year and began collecting it in recent months. This obligation stems from the 2022 state regulations, which are designed to comply with the European Recycling Directive. The average increase so far this year has been about 15%.
However, there are few suggestions for designing new interest rates. Other than the community ordinance’s principle of generational payments (those who pollute the most pay the most) and the requirement that the fees be non-deficit, meaning they cover the cost of providing the service, town councils have received no specific instructions. The result is a highly heterogeneous map, both in terms of calculation methods and prices, which are generally inflated.
The ENT Foundation, which is dedicated to the design and implementation of waste fees, has calculated that for a typical household with a cadastral value of €64,295, two members and a production of 964 kg of waste per year, the amount of the fee would amount to €116.32 per year. However, there are large differences between state capitals, reaching up to 230 euros. The price for this standard family unit is highest in Valencia at 287.5 euros per year, followed by Girona (238 euros) and Tarragona (236.2 euros). The lowest prices are in Toledo (56.9 euros), Palencia (57.4 euros) and Leon (62.5 euros).
Jewelry prices, which were the second item with the highest year-on-year increase in October (26.8%), have also been on the rise over recent months. Since the middle of last year, monthly increases recorded year-on-year have consistently exceeded 10%, and this trend largely reflects the warming of raw material prices, such as gold, which, like silver, has reached historic highs this year (although it has undergone a significant correction in recent weeks).
Multimodal passenger transport, which includes a combination of transport modes, was the third most expensive item (26.7%) in the 10 months of this year. In this case, the price increase is more recent and coincides with the end of general discounts that the executive branch invoked to deal with the inflation crisis and that local governments extended. Although some communities and town councils have retained some form of bonus, the impact on prices has been reduced since July.
Although the increase in egg prices is less pronounced, it affects proportionately more consumers’ pockets. It increased by 22.5% in October, after seven consecutive months of double-digit increases in parallel with the progress of the bird flu epidemic. Paradoxically, the price growth rate for poultry meat was much slower at 3.7%, much lower than the price growth rates for beef (17.8%) and sheep and goat meat (7.7%).
On the other side of the table, olive oil (41.6%) experienced the largest decline. Olive oil was also one of the products whose prices increased the most after the onset of the inflation crisis. This is closely followed by sugar (13.5%) and national tourism packages (-6.4%).
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