Spain inflation climbs to 2.9%

Spain's consumer price inflation accelerated in September, a flash estimate from the statistical office INE showed Monday.

Another official data showed that retail sales growth eased in August on weaker food turnover.

Consumer price inflation rose to 2.9% in September from 2.7% in August. This was the highest inflation since February but came in weaker than economists' forecast of 3.1%.

Meanwhile, core inflation softened to 2.3% from 2.4% a month ago, data showed.

At the same time, EU harmonized inflation accelerated to 3.0%, as expected, from 2.7% a month ago. Compared to August, the consumer price index slid 0.4%.

Economists had forecast a monthly fall of 0.2% after posting nil growth in August.

The harmonized index of consumer prices moved up 0.1% compared to a forecast of a 0.3% rise.

Other data from the INE shows that retail sales grew at a slower pace of 4.5% in August after rising 4.7% in July. On an unadjusted basis, retail sales rose 3.0% from a year ago after expanding 4.3% in the previous month.

Month-on-month, retail sales gained 0.4%, offsetting the 0.4% decrease in July. Food sales rose 0.1% and non-food product sales advanced 0.8% in August.