Inflation reached a new record in Europe and Italy where the price index rose by 8% in June. This is the highest peak recorded after that of January 1986. And the biggest increases mainly concern basic necessities with heavy consequences on the average shopping basket.
The month of June recorded a new sad record with inflation climbing to 8% in one year in Italy (+1.2% compared to April), according to preliminary forecasts from Eurostat. The euro zone average is even higher, with an increase of 8.6%. Two countries are particularly in difficulty: Spain (+10%) and Greece (+12%), while inflation is more contained in France (+6.5%).
Again, inflation is mainly fueled by rising energy prices – up 41.9% in June in the Eurozone. Italy is one of the markets most affected by the rise in energy prices, up 42.6% in May and 48.7% in June.
But the rise in inflation is also contributing to the acceleration in food prices, which rose by 9.6% on average in Italy, against 8.9% in the euro zone. Enough to increase the average cash receipt by 8.3% while shopping according to the National Institute of Statistics (Istat). And for good reason, most of the double-digit increases concern basic necessities. Among them, oil saw a record increase of almost 70%, butter by 27.7%, flour by 20.5%, pasta by 18.3%, rice by 13.7%. Fresh products are also affected since the price of fish has risen by 10.3%, eggs by 13.6%, ice cream by 13.4%, while that of fruit has increased by 10.9% and vegetables by 11.8%.
Another 3 billion euros released to reduce gas and electricity bills
In a new decree signed last Thursday, the government released 3 billion euros to alleviate the impact of soaring energy costs on household and business bills. Without this intervention, the increase in bills would have been 45%, said Prime Minister Mario Draghi. So far, the government has released a total of 30 billion euros.