What does the industrial price index measure?

The monthly movement of ex-factory selling prices of industrial products — excluding transport and commercialisation costs and VAT. Producer prices, not consumer prices.

Why are the Canaries top when their energy prices rose only fifth fastest?

Because energy weighs more in the Canary basket than in any other. The distance from the index excluding energy is 22.5 points, against 9.7 across Spain.

How can the same index read −31.4% in February and +27.3% in August?

Because the annual rate compares two levels: 104.25 against 151.978 in February, 163.136 against 128.105 in August. A high base month pushes the rate down, a weak one lifts it.

Do Canary households pay more for electricity as a result?

Not for this reason. Charges and the PVPC price are uniform nationwide under Law 24/2013; the extra cost of island generation is borne half by the state budget, half by all electricity customers.

Are Ceuta and Melilla in the comparison?

No. INE table 76655 reports Spain and 17 autonomous communities; the two autonomous cities do not appear.

Canary industrial prices +27.3%, 4.8% without energy

Canary industrial prices up 27.3%, but only 4.8% without energy

Factory-gate prices in Canary industry were 27.3% higher in August 2026 than a year earlier — the highest reading of all 17 autonomous communities, level with Asturias. Without energy, 4.8% is left. The 22.5-point gap is the widest in Spain: the islands' energy prices did not rise fastest, they merely weigh more than anywhere else.

25 September 2026 · By Martin Kosinski · 5 Min. · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief

What the index measures, and what it does not

According to INE's methodological note, the IPRI measures prices of industrial products manufactured and sold on the domestic market "at the first step of their commercialisation, that is, ex-factory selling prices, excluding transport and commercialisation costs and invoiced VAT". ISTAC put it the same way on 24 September. These are producer prices on base 2021, not a consumer price index; INE's methodology names VAT, while the island tax is the IGIC. In the same August the Canary consumer price index stood at +3.8%.

Top place comes from the weight, not the move

On the energy component itself the Canaries rank only fifth of 17: ahead of them the Basque Country at +46.3%, Asturias at +44.7, Andalusia at +43.8 and La Rioja at +40.5; the islands follow at +39.3, with Spain at +33.3%.

What decides it is the distance between the general index and the index excluding energy: 22.5 points in the Canaries, the widest of the 17, ahead of the Balearics at 20.5 and Asturias at 19.4; for Spain, INE gives 9.7. That distance is the measurable imprint of the weight. INE does not publish the weights by community — its methodology states they are "different in each geographical aggregation" and referenced to December of the previous year. The Canary energy share of the basket is therefore unpublished; only its effect can be evidenced.

What counts as industry on the islands

For the Canaries INE publishes three economic sections: electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply at +43.8%, manufacturing at +5.0% and water supply at +1.8%. The extractive industries are withheld as confidential, and for coke ovens and petroleum refining table 76657 carries no Canary data — so no refining contribution can be evidenced in the published series.

One point against the comfortable version: at +4.8%, prices excluding energy are not tame. They sit above Spain's +3.5% and are, level with the Basque Country, the third highest of the 17.

From minus 31.4 to plus 27.3 percent in six months

The low of the past two years falls in February 2026 at −31.4% — not January, which was −8.2%. Half the explanation is the comparison base: in February 2026 the general index stood at 104.25 against 151.978 in February 2025, a month that had itself been 49.1% above February 2024. In August 2026 it stood at 163.136 against 128.105 — and that August 2025 had been weak, at −3.6%.

Both moving parts moved sharply. The electricity section fell 35.1% in February against January, to an index of 72.667, and stood at 153.998 in August — more than a doubling in six months. Against July alone the general index rose 5.6% in August, and 22.0% since the start of the year. The annual rate is not a thermometer but a comparison of two snapshots.

Who ends up paying

The first route runs through the electricity price and does not end on a Canary bill. Under Law 24/2013 network tolls and charges are "uniform across the whole national territory" (article 16.3), as is the regulated PVPC price (article 17.1). The extra cost of island generation runs through the fifteenth additional provision: since 1 January 2014 it has been financed "50 percent from the General State Budget", the other half through the charges paid by all Spanish electricity customers. For 2025 the provisional settlement by the regulator CNMC (LIQ/DE/006/25) puts the two Canary items at no less than 1,026,607,298.92 euros, around 1.03 billion. The price jump is therefore spread, not translated into an island tariff — the group housing, electricity, gas and other fuels rose 3.1% in the Canaries in August, against 6.4% across Spain.

The second route runs through shop prices, and this is where the evidence stops: INE publishes no estimate of how much of a factory-gate price reaches the shelf, or with what lag, and states that the IPRI is not a consumer price index.

Canary industrial prices up 27.3%, but only 4.8% without energy

The figures and where they come from