High oil prices helped to push Spanish producer price inflation to an annual rate of 3.8 percent in May, its highest level for more than three years, Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE) said on Friday.
The monthly rise of 0.7 percent beat the 0.6 percent average forecast in a Reuters survey of five economists. There was no forecast for the year-on-year rise.
The annual increase jumped sharply from the 2.6 percent rate recorded in April, when the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.8 percent month-on-month.
The year-on-year rate was the highest since January 2001 when it was 3.9 percent, having fallen from a peak of 5.9 percent three months before that.
The main contributor to the rise in factory gate inflation in May was the oil refining sector, whose costs rose 6.7 percent in the month and 22.2 percent year-on-year.
Close behind came metals industries whose input prices rose 2.8 percent in the month and 20.4 percent year-on-year.
Food and drinks industries recorded a 0.7 percent rise in May and a 5.4 percent annual rise, INE said.
Consumer goods prices were up 0.4 percent month-on-month and 3.1 percent year-on-year while capital goods prices were flat on the month and up 1.2 percent year-on-year.
Intermediate goods prices rose 0.6 percent in May for a 4.3 percent annual rise, while energy prices rose 2.3 percent for a 7.2 percent annual rise.
The surge in producer prices mirrors a sharp recent rise in Spain's consumer price index, also largely due to the rise in energy costs.
Spain's annual consumer price inflation rate hit a 14-month high of 3.4 percent in May from 2.7 percent in April, INE said earlier this month.
Supply concerns pushed US light crude oil to a 21-year high of $42.45 a barrel at the beginning of June.
Prices have fallen slightly in the wake of Opec's decision to increase crude oil supplies but even so the Spanish government is bracing for inflation to remain high at the end of the year.
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