As double-digit inflation racks Spain and food costs rise ever higher, Ione Belarra, the Spanish social affairs minister has said the government needs to reduce prices for necessities by offering discounts on them.

On Thursday the minister posted on Twitter that the reduction in the Value Added Tax (VAT) has proven ineffective as prices have continued to rise to “the highest” levels seen. She requested the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) offer a 14% subsidy of the basic consumer basket.

She also posited the government should intervene to bring prices down to the levels they were at prior to the war in Ukraine, noting that Spanish “families can’t wait any longer.” She even proposed a price intervention, while making  the case that any proposed subsidy would aid consumers who were being ravaged by the country’s soaring inflation.

Despite a reduction in the Value Added Tax on some basic products, food inflation has continued to remain over 15%. Although January’s inflation rate of 15.4% for food and non-alcoholic drinks, as measured by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), was a slight decrease from December’s 15.7% rate for those items, consumers are still feeling the pinch.

The rising costs of meats, fish, yogurt, butter, cereals, coffee, tea, and baby food, has really impacted cash-strapped households in Spain, as these items were not subject to the reduction in the VAT because they were not classified as basic.

Overall, the inflation reading in January came in above the INE’s expectations, at 5.9% year over year, and 0.6% over December’s reading.