Bombona goes up tonight to its legal maximum of €17.50

SPAIN The price of a household bottled butane gas barrel (bombona) goes up by 2.15% at midnight tonight to €17.50, the maximum price it is allowed to be sold at until next year. It will therefore have increased by 7.2% since January 1. In answer to possible questions about the whys and wherefores of yet another price increase (and we don't like the answers any more than you, Dear Reader) let us just say that it has to do with an accumulated tariff system that we simply don't understand, no matter how many times we have asked. Something to do with the suppliers selling at a loss (but posting enormous profits)...

Bombona price up, electricity down

SPAIN The price of bottled gas, bombonas, went up on Tuesday by 5%, from €16.32 to €17.13, according to the nation's official bulletin, BOE. The announcement also said that the price, controlled by decree, is to be revised every two months instead of the present three, and that it cannot be raised or lowered (that'd be nice!) by more than 5%. Consumer organizations have complained that this is hardly the time for an increase that affects some 11 million homes in Spain, and is the only source of heating and cooking. Nevertheless, a bombona in Spain is still one of the cheapest of its kind in Europe, or at least the 'old' Europe'. (We have tried to find a comparative list of prices but failed - can anyone help? In the meantime, and on the Good News side, the price of electricity goes down from April, as we reported here.

'Bombona' goes up to €16.50

A pile of bombonas

SPAIN We had a chat over coffee this morning with one of our local bomboneros - that is, our gas bottle suppliers. We were foolish enough to ask him if gas bottles had gone up together with electricity and 'natural gas', as they call it though who knows why (is there any other kind?). Yes, he said, it now costs €16.50 per bottle, up one euro from Saturday to Sunday. We had another coffee with a friend who told us that he paid €11 something when he first came to Spain about five years ago. We can no longer remember what it cost when we first came to live in Spain over 40 years ago. But what nobody seems able to explain is how come the prices of gas and electricity go up and up and up on the excuse that both these 'energies' are supplied below cost yet the companies (E.g. Repsol, Cepsa, Iberdrola, Endesa, etc.) continue to announce profits and more profits. Can any economist out there offer an explanation, please? (See Electricity and gas go up again)

Electricity and gas go up again in July

SPAIN (Agencies) July starts on Sunday, two days away. The news is that electricity and natural gas are going up, almost without warning. We have tried to explain the (cozy government-companies) system and why there is such a deficit in the electric companies' books when they show a profit seemingly every five minutes - so we won't  do any more explaining (we can't explain something we do not understand anyway). Nevertheless, electricity is going up for the vast majority of a long-suffering public by an astronomical 3.95%, and natural gas by 2.26% (reports don't say anything about bombonas, but we can assume they'll be going up as well.). We're going to stop this item here because we need to go away and throw up. In any case, your wallet has been warned. (To see other items on the subject -including an attempt at explaining the reason behind these rises, just type in the word 'electricity' in the search widget on the sidebar...)

Gas goes up by 5.7% tonight

SPAIN (Agencies) The price of natural gas (mains) and that of butane (bottled) goes up by 5.7% at midnight tonight, as announced by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce. Gas natural, or mains gas, thus rises by €2.37 per month for the average user (i.e. €28.4 per year), but more for homes using gas for heating, plus cooking and hot water. The price of bottled gas, the famous bombona (in its silver or orange gear) will cost €14.80 as from tonight, a rise of 5.7%, or 80 centimos above the €14 it cost until today. The bombona has gone up by 12.2% since January, compared to 16.6% in all of 2010, a heavy impact on the finances of between 8 and 10 million users in the country.

 

We were wrong and promptly admit it: bombonas go up by 6% today

In our last item on price hikes we said that the price of a bombona was not going to go up, but we were wrong. The orange, silvcer, blue, green or whatever colour gas cylinder went up by 6% this morning. So did natural gas (no jokes, even on April Fool, which this item is not). However, electricity -to our and your utter amazement- has not gone up. Life in Spain can make one pretty cynical, so, as we said yesterday, don't be surprised if the lecky bill goes up substantially shortly after local elections on May 22.

Natural gas goes up by 4.1% tomorrow

SPAIN (Agencies) Although the government has decided that an increase of close to 12% is 'not viable' at this time, it has allowed a 4.1% rise in the price of natural gas - not the bottled one, as in bombona. This rise affects some 7.3 million homes that use the tarifa regulada, according to the Industry Ministry. The price of natural gas is closely related to that of oil, and we know what's been happening to that (a rise of 10% per barrel). So, the so-called TUR-1 gas contract (hot water and cooking) goes up by an average of 3.3%, and that of TUR-2 (plus heating), by 4.3%. The 'viability' or otherwise of a hike in electricity prices probably has more to do with the closeness of local elections than anything else. Therefore, expect it just after May 22.

Electricity goes up by 10%, gas by an average of 3.9%

As we announced here, electricity will be going up by 9.8% next on Saturday, January 1. That, according to the Minister of Industry, Miguel Sebastián, is the equivalent of a little over one coffee per month per inhabitant. The fact is, according to consumers' organizations, it actually means just under €7 per family per month (with national unemployment at 20%), taking the number of users as seventeen millions. Equally, the cost of a bombona will also rise by 43 céntimos per bottle. That usually means an increase in the price of petrol as well. The background to the increase is tied up in the Tarifa de Último Recurso (TUR, or Tariff of Last Recourse), in itself a complex system that allows the power companies (many of them producing record benefits) to up their prices independently of the taxes imposed by the government. The latter says it is not touching these taxes.>

Gas rises, didn't you know?

The price of a bombona (gas bottle) went up yesterday to €12.80, its record price. This is the fourth time the price of bottled gas has gone up in 12 months, the last time on July 1. You may not need reminding that electricity went up yesterday as well, by 4.8%. It would all be fine if salaries, pensions, income, went up accordingly. But then, that's one of the reasons why there was a general strike on Wednesday...