Mediafax writes on 19 October that Spain is second in the EU for food-price rises: 2.3% year on year in August 2026, after Cyprus at 3.8%. The cited source is Eurostat. This is not the price level. It is the change from August 2025. It is not headline inflation.

The ECB portal puts the same rates on the HICP “food and non-alcoholic beverages” basket (010000): Spain 2.3%, Cyprus 3.8%, updated 17 September. The euro area, same basket: 0.7%. The broader basket, with alcohol and tobacco, puts Spain at 2.4% in August; there Romania appears higher, 2.7% on RAC-EU from Eurostat. The “second place” ranking belongs to 010000, not FOOD00.

On the same Mediafax thread, Romania and Portugal each have 2.1%, immediately after Spain. Finland and Malta 1.6%, Luxembourg 1.3%. France and Italy 1.1%, Bulgaria 0.9%. Germany, Greece, Ireland 0.2%. Belgium almost zero. Sweden −6.2%. INS, on the national CPI for food goods, gives 2.62% in August, down from 5.03% in July — another index, not the HICP in the ranking.

Falls on the Mediafax list: Austria −0.5%, Croatia −0.7%, Poland −0.8%, Slovenia −0.9% — rates the ECB confirms for Austria, Croatia and Slovenia. The Netherlands −1%, Denmark −1.5%, Lithuania −2.1%, Slovakia −2.5%, Estonia −2.6%. Hungary −4.8%, Czechia −4.5%, Latvia −4%. We have not re-read all 27 Eurostat cells; we kept the figures that match.

Mediafax compares the minimum wage: 4,325 lei gross a month in Romania from 1 July 2026, 17,094 euro gross a year in Spain, 14 payments. That remains their comparison. It is not proof that Romanians “feel” 2.1% harder than Spaniards feel 2.3%. Tax, rent and the price level do not sit in the same figure.

August 2026, not October. One percentage point on a basket is not an empty basket.

Image: Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid, Nicolas Vigier (Flickr), CC0, Wikimedia Commons. A market, not an Eurostat basket.

Sources consulted: Food — ECB Data Portal; Romania's annual inflation rate falls to 6.17% in August — Agerpres.