Inflation in Spain has reached 3.1% in October 2025, one point above the eurozone average (2.1%), which makes our country the European leader in price increases.
But while the Spanish lose purchasing power, State coffers break historical collection records.
The cause is the most regressive tax of all: inflation. The poverty tax.
Data from the National Statistics Institute say that eggs have become more expensive by 22.5% year-on-year. Beef, 16.5%. Coffee, 19.4%. And fresh fish, 7.2%.
They are not isolated figures. The food basket has increased by 36% since 2021. Buying fresh legumes and vegetables costs 99% more today than it did ten years ago.
The Mediterranean diet has become, paradoxically, an inaccessible luxury for millions of Spaniards for whom it is cheaper to eat poorly. Following a healthy diet costs €216 per month per person, 20% more than a diet based on ultra-processed foods.
Meanwhile, macroeconomics shows a country that is growing at 3%, leading European rankings of economic expansion and generating optimistic headlines.
But that narrative collides head-on with the supermarket economy, where Spanish salaries grow by just 2% annually (standing at an average of 27,552 euros gross) without even remotely compensating for accumulated inflation.
Furthermore, Spanish GDP per capita has stagnated at 27,740 euros, 18.1% below the eurozone average, and the wage gap with Europe has reached €6,100 per year per worker.
Pedro Sanchez He has set himself up as a champion of fiscal justice with his tax on the rich: banking, energy, great fortunes. But the real tax is being paid by the poor because of inflation.
As the economist said Milton Friedman“inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon” caused by an excess of money in circulation. And the Sánchez Government has been especially generous in spending public money.
State spending has skyrocketed from 104 billion euros in 2018 to 190 billion euros in 2024, practically double in seven years. If all attached organizations are included, total public spending reached 722,846 million in 2024 and promises to exceed 800,000 million in 2025, an increase of 60% compared to 2018.
In the first seven months of 2025 alone, the Executive spent 85.5 billion more than budgeted, accumulating a deficit of 6.5% of GDP, the second highest in the European Union.
At the same time, the minimum wage has risen 61% since 2018, reaching 1,184 euros in 2025, well above accumulated inflation (23.3%).
This policy, laudable in its intentions, but catastrophic in its consequences, generates additional inflationary pressures in an economy with low productivity like Spain’s.
Because more wage bill, without parallel increases in productivity, translates into higher prices. This is what happens when populist policies are disconnected from market reality..
Added to this is an erratic energy policy. The “reinforced mode” of the electrical system (activated after the blackout on April 28) has cost 422 million euros in six months and has raised electricity rates by prioritizing more expensive conventional energies over renewables.
But perhaps the most silent and effective tax is the refusal to deflate personal income tax. This phenomenon, known as cold progressivityhas allowed the State to collect an extra 9,747 million euros between 2021 and 2024 without formally modifying the laws.
In 2024 alone, this measure contributed 3.4 billion to public coffersand it is estimated that it will generate an additional 15.9 billion until 2031.
The result is a constant impoverishment of the Spanish population. The accumulated inflation during Sánchez’s mandate reaches 21.3%, three times higher than that of the previous government (7.2%).
Food prices in Spain have also increased by 37.9%, far surpassing the eurozone (31.2%) and the United States (28.3%), which shows that the problem transcends global factors.
The Government’s two rockets take off without control: prices up, and tax collection too. And below are the citizens, paying the tax that no one votes, but everyone suffers.