Spain August 12-month inflation slows to 10.4% YoY; oil gives a break

(Reuters) - Spanish domestic consumer prices have eased despite remaining high, mainly due to lower fuel prices against a rise in power prices, preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Tuesday.

The figure stood at 10.4% year-on-year in August, down from 10.8% the previous month. The reading was lower than the 10.9% forecast by analysts polled by Reuters.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was at 6.4% year-on-year, the highest since January 1993 and up from 6.1% a month earlier, the INE data showed.

"We have to continue (acting) with enormous caution because the uncertainty is very high as a consequence of the war at the gates of Europe", Economy minister Nadia Calvino told national broadcaster TVE on Tuesday.

Although inflation has softened, it remains high mainly due to massive electricity prices and higher prices of food, restaurants and package tours, INE said.

In an attempt to curb inflation Spain said last month it will send a proposal to the European Union on limiting carbon emission permit prices in a bid to reduce the energy prices and their effects on inflation.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent pressure on energy and food markets has stoked inflation, which was already accelerating as the global economy emerged from the coronavirus pandemic.

Spanish European Union-harmonised prices rose 10.3% from a year earlier, down from 10.7% in July and in line with the forecast of analysts polled by Reuters.

(This story corrects EU-harmonized data for July in line 28)

(Reporting by Mariana Ferreira Azevedo; Editing by Emma Pinedo, Belén Carreño and Frank Jack Daniel)