Food price hike continues

FOOD prices in Mallorca continue to rise despite the IVA tax reduction en‐forced by the Spanish government at the end of last year.

Consumers’ union Facua has anal‐ysed the evolution in nearly 1,000 prices of products in eight large super‐market chains this month and has found that four in every 10 ‐ 42 per cent ‐ are now more expensive than before the reduction.

According to Facua, this shows that the measure is insufficient to curb in‐flation as in March the price increase affected one in every three products and in February it was only one in ev‐ery five.

As a result, the consumers’ union has announced plans to extend the of‐ficial complaints lodged with the Na‐tional Markets and Competition Com‐mission against the eight supermarket chains in question over the first three months of the year ‐ neither of which have yet been answered.

Facua points out that the price hike goes against the regulations set out in the government’s Royal Decree, which reads that “the tax reduction must entirely benefit the consumer and therefore must not be used to in‐crease the profit margin for the com‐pany.”

Airport fire

THE arrivals area at Palma airport had to be evacuated on Tuesday when a fire broke out in the engine of one of the moving walkways and filled the room with smoke.

Surgery delays

TRANS women in Mallorca are complaining they have not been able to undergo sex change surgery since last August. The holdup is due to the expiry of an agreement between the Balearic Islands Health Service and Barna‐clínic, a private entity in charge of the operations.

Air quality lab

A MOBILE laboratory has been set up in Manacor’s Avinguda del Tren to mea‐sure air quality. The spot was chosen due to being a busy part of the town centre and the data obtained over three months will be used to take any necessary measures.

Rubbish idea

RESIDENTS in Palma’s Calle Jeroni Rosselló who were af‐fected by the burning of rub‐bish containers in the early hours of last Sunday have announced plans to file an official complaint against the council if the town hall de‐cides to install the new bins in the same place again.

Lights, camera..

MALLORCA photographer and filmmaker Pep Bonet goes from strength to strength as Netflix has an‐nounced the purchase of the rights for his short documen‐tary entitled Into the shad‐ows, showing the problems faced by Zimbabwean immi‐grants in Johannesburg.

More flights

RYANAIR has announced nine new flights to Palma this summer: Aarhus (Den‐mark), Belfast, Rome‐Fiu‐micino (Italy), Klagenfurt (Austria), Paderborn (Ger‐many), Warsaw (Poland) and Marrakech, Fez and Nador (Morocco).