Electricity prices to rise in Spain

Spain's Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Jose Manuel Soria confirmed Tuesday that electricity prices will rise by between 5 and 7 percent from the start of April. The price rise happens despite the latest auction of energy prices in Spain where the price of electricity actually fell by 7 percent for the major power suppliers. However Soria explained that there was no option other than to hand price rises to consumers given that a Supreme Court ruling obliged the government to recover the true cost of producing electricity from the over 20 million consumers in Spain. The price rise is going to be "between five and seven percent," said Soria, speaking on Spanish television station, Antenna 3. The minister added that the price of electricity should rise by 40 percent in order to recover costs, which are estimated at over 24 billion euros (32 billion U.S. dollars). Soria said he had ruled such a price rise out, "consumers cannot support all of the weight of the imbalance there is between the income and the costs of the electrical system." The minister added that this Friday's cabinet meeting would look at ways to help deal with this imbalance.