Spain's consumer prices rose 4.1% in April year-on-year, an increase compared to March but below analyst expectations and inflation data from other European countries, preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Friday.

In March, inflation slowed to 3.3% - the lowest since August 2021 - mainly due to a so-called "base" statistical effect, as energy prices had spiked in the same month a year earlier.

Spain's European Union-harmonised 12-month inflation was 3.8%, up from 3.1% in March and below the 4.1% average expectation from analysts polled by Reuters.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile fresh food and energy prices, was 6.6% year-on-year, down from 7.5% in the period through March, the INE data showed.

INE said in a statement that food prices saw a smaller surge than in April last year, which slowed the overall rise in prices, although the data will not be broken down by category until the publication of final inflation figures.

(Reporting by Belén Carreño and Joao Manuel Mauricio in Gdansk, editing by David Latona)