Consumers in Greece pay five times more for essential food items compared to other Europeans, verifying the accuracy of Eurostat’s most official data about the high cost of living in Greece, in November 2023.
Despite the government handing out fines and imposing caps on margin profits, businesses continue to overprice products using geopolitical upheavals, supply chain issues and energy prices as an excuse.
Furthermore, the ‘household baskets’ that the government invented to supposedly check market prices have not been effective in controlling revaluations.
Eurostat’s latest data (Nov. 2023) on inflation shows the dire situation Greek households are in with the annual price changes in essential food items in Greece continuing to reveal higher increases compared to the European average.
More specifically, revaluations of products in the ‘oils and fats’ category in Greece have reached approximately 31.5% compared to a mere 5.9% in the European Union. Additionally, meat, fish and egg prices follow the same trend; with increases in Greece reaching 7.9% for meat compared to 4% in the rest of Europe, 9.5% for fish compared to 5.8% in Europe and 8.6% for eggs compared to 2.5% in other European countries.
Finally, prices of cheese are soaring in Greece, with revaluations reaching 10.1%. It is higher compared to Italy (2.9%) and Spain (4.4%) with the European average rate at 2.9%.
According to the trading economics list for food inflation in countries located in continental Europe for November, Greece has a higher food inflation rate (8.89%) compared to the overall countries of Europe, excluding Iceland, Norway, and Spain.
