Cost of living rises

This report from the Coast Rider highlights the main rises in costs that we face already

Electricity
Electricity has risen by 3 percent for millions of domestic customers, although for some - those whose contracted supply is lower than 3 kilowatts, families where all members are out of work, pensioners on the lowest income - the price has been frozen. The government is also going to penalise increases in consumption by charging more and has therefore had to eradicate the estimated monthly meter readings. There will be further increases during the year, because the tax of 7 percent which has to be paid by the suppliers will end up being passed on to the public.

Fuel
Petrol and diesel will be going up immediately if the oil companies and petrol stations decide to include in the final prices the tax on biofuels which form part of the products' composition. The exemption from this tax ended on 1st January. At the pumps, this new tax could mean an extra charge of between 3 and 5 cents per litre.

Mortgages
There is some relief for home owners with a mortgage. The average one-year Euribor rate, which is the main reference for mortgages with variable interest, dropped in December to around 0.55 per cent, which is the lowest in its ten year history. On an average loan of 150,000 euros over 25 years, the annual review will mean a saving of some 1,200 euros over the next twelve months.

Tobacco
Altadis is applying an increase of 4.8 percent on the price of all its brands of cigarettes, which includes the best-selling Spanish brand Fortuna, 9 percent on all pipe tobacco* and 8.3 per cent on the main brands of cigar.

Telephone
The crisis has caused a flight of customers to virtual operators and created huge competition among the big companies such as Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange. The most expensive monthly charge for landlines is that of Telefónica, and it has been frozen at 13.974 euros plus IVA for the past five years. This could go up by the same rate as the Retail Price Index, not only in 2013 but also every year until 2016.

Postal charges
On 1st January the cost of sending normal letters and postcards up to 20 grams in weight went up by 2.7 percent to 37 cents.

Transport
The price of suburban, medium distance and regional rail services is going up by an average of 3 to 3.5 percent. The discount on return tickets will be increased from 10 to 20 percent on conventional regional services and those that use the high speed lines. Companies which run the inter-urban bus services have been authorised to charge 6 percent more to compensate for the rise in fuel costs. Airport taxes will include a surcharge of 85 cents per person, and tolls on state-run motorways have gone up by an average of 2.4 percent.

* That is harsh!