Since Pedro Sánchez arrived at Moncloa in June 2018 until July 2026, prices in Spain have become more expensive by a cumulative 26.4%, according to INE data. If the August rebound is addedthe figure already exceeds 27%. Translated into the domestic economy: every 100 euros saved eight years ago is worth less than 79 euros today in real purchasing power. That is, in a single figure, the photograph of a country that has become poorer year after year despite the macroeconomic bonanza.
Inflation, according to the Government, has always been the result of external crises, but the data disproves the story. The external shocks – the war in Ukraine first, the tension in Iran later – are undeniable, but that does not explain why Spain systematically suffers more inflation than its neighbors, exposed to the same shocks.
Spain has now had a CPI above the eurozone average for almost a year and a half, and the advance in August placed the interannual rate at 4.3%seven tenths more than in July and the highest level since February 2023, driven by fuels. Diesel is at 1.8 euros/liter, 50% more than the 1.23 euros in June 2018. According to Eurostat data, Spain’s CPI rose to 4.5% in August, compared to the 3.3% average in the euro zone, placing our country as the fourth State with the highest price increases, only behind Lithuania, at 5.8%, Cyprus, at 5.2%, and Bulgaria, 5.1%. Core inflation, which excludes energy and fresh food, also picks up. Transportation, food and housing are rising strongly and have risen well above the 27% accumulated under this Government.
The most serious thing is that This erosion of purchasing power has not been compensated by salaries, which in real terms have decreased significantly in this period. Meanwhile, collection benefits from inflation that the Executive has not wanted to correct via personal income tax deflation.
With this diagnosis, the big question is no longer just who will win the next elections, but what the winner will receive. If Alberto Núñez Feijóo arrives at Moncloa, he will not inherit an economy that is going “like a rocket,” as Sánchez proclaims, but rather a society exhausted after years of sustained rising prices. Undoing that accumulated damage will take much more time than it took to cause it. That is the true legacy that Sánchez would leave on the table: structural impoverishment.