MADRID (Reuters) – The vice president of the Spanish government said on Friday that the price of electricity for the average consumer this year will fall about 5 percent, while gas will rise only 0.5 percent.
“The domestic consumer electric bill has dropped 3.7 percent in 2013 and this year will go down, this is the estimate of the Minister of Industry (José Manuel Soria), 4.9 percent” said Soraya Saenz de Santamaria in the conference after the Cabinet press.
For gas, the vice president said, according to a report from industry, the rise for domestic consumers this year will be only 0.5 percent in 2013 after rising nearly 6 percent.
For industrial consumers, electricity will be down this year by 1.5 percent and 2.4 percent gas, he said, ensuring that this new price situation is due to the energy reforms aimed to end the tariff deficit in both energy sectors.
The forecast for the fall of the price of electricity in 2014 is in line with the statements made by the Minister of Industry in recent months and differs from the predictions of some consumer as Facua.
This last October indicated that the electricity bill experienced a rise of 19 percent in the first nine months of the year and in September the average user paid 7.8 percent more than in the same month 2013.
The electric bills and gas, especially the former, have traditionally been used as shields or missiles by the Spanish political parties.
The public sensitivity to them was accentuated by an economic crisis, to the point that the government had to redraft the bill after suspicions of price manipulation by power in the retail market.
The Spanish pay one of the highest receipts light of the EU and this game has gained more weight in household spending during an economic crisis that has led to devaluations wage and unemployment rates above 25 percent of the workforce.
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