Spain to cap gas price hikes as winter looms
The Spanish government plans to limit natural gas price increases to 15 percent to shield consumers from spiralling energy prices due to the Mideast war, Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen said Tuesday.
The price of butane tanks, used by many households for cooking and heating, will also be capped at €19.55 ($22), Aagesen told journalists as she arrived in Dublin for a meeting of EU energy ministers to prepare for the coming winter.
“If we didn’t put these limits, the price for consumers, for households, would rise by more than 45 percent starting next month,” she said of the gas cap.
“These are essential measures to protect against this vulnerable situation,” she said, without specifying how much they would cost.
Soaring energy costs worldwide from the ongoing Mideast war as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have sent Spanish inflation soaring, to 4.9 percent in September from a year earlier.
The government had already approved last March a package of around 80 measures to limit the impact, for a total cost of €5 billion, which it says helped 20 million households and three million businesses.
Among the main objectives now is preventing the increase in energy costs from being passed on to food prices and generating a second round of inflation. According to calculations by Spain’s Organisation of Consumers and Users (OCU), people’s bills could increase by 54 percent if the Spanish government does not take action soon.
It remains to be seen whether the government will extend the fuel tax breaks beyond September . This month, the discount is five cents per litre of petrol and 20 cents per litre of diesel.
With additional reporting by The Local Spain’s Alex Dunham
