spanish inflation slowed sharply in june as fuel electricity and food price increases eased official data showed thursday in a boost for the leftwing government ahead of a snap election surveys suggest it will lose with barely three weeks until the july 23 general election inflation tumbled by more than one percentage point in june reaching 19 percent yearonyear down from 32 percent a month earlier figures from the national statistics institute ine showed the result offered fresh hope to prime minister pedro sanchez who has repeatedly flagged the results of his economic policy in order to gain ground in the polls where his socialists are tailing the rightwing popular party pp the preliminary figure brings spanish inflation in line with the two percent target set by the european central bank for the eurozone sanchezs leftwing coalition government has implemented a series of measures to bring down inflation which hit a record 108 percent in july 2022 its highest level since 1985 using the ecbs preferred yardstick known as the harmonised index of consumer prices hicp spanish inflation stood at 16 percent or 13 points lower than the may figure of 29 percent core inflation which is seasonally adjusted and excludes energy fell by 02 points to 59 percent yearonyear sanchezs government has rolled out a raft of budgetary measures to bolster the purchasing power of households that have been hard hit by inflation which last year reached an average of 84 percent at the end of december the government axed vat on a range of basic foodstuffs in a measure that was extended this week until the years end the move raised to almost 50 billion euros 5457 billion the overall amount released by spains government to help those struggling with soaring inflation and runaway food and energy prices the june inflation rate puts spain in a better place than most of its neighbours within the eurozone where inflation reached 61 percent yearonyear in may eurostat figures showed