Energy price hikes hit 61%

Greece is among the European leaders in energy and food inflation, which significantly burdens vulnerable households and demonstrates the structural causes of rate hikes in the country, in addition to imported factors. The large increases in energy and their impact on the prices of a number of other products and services are related to the great dependence of Greek production on fossil fuels.

The definitive data Eurostat published on Friday regarding the harmonized consumer price index for May show that in Greece energy prices increased by 61% on an annual basis, which was the fifth highest rate in the eurozone and the European Union. Regarding electricity, the price in Greece posted the third highest increase (80.2%) in May on an annual basis. Estonia reported a 146.3% hike, with the Netherlands following (with 118%).

The rise in the price of natural gas in Greece was the second highest in the eurozone (172.7%) after Estonia (217.3%), while in terms of liquid fuel prices, Greece recorded an increase of 65.1%.

Greece is also one of the leaders in terms of food prices. Overall, according to Eurostat data, food category prices rose by 12.7% in Greece in May compared to a year earlier, an increase that was the sixth highest among the eurozone countries. At the eurozone level, food prices rose by 8.9%.

The increase in bread/cereals prices was 13.4% in Greece (9.7% in the eurozone), in fresh milk it was 10.1%, and in meat 13.8%.

There were also very large increases in fruit prices compared to other countries: Eurostat data show that in Greece, a country with significant fruit adequacy, prices rose by 9.8% in May, an increase that was the third largest in the eurozone, after Slovenia and Sweden, where fruit prices rose by 11.4% and 10.8%, respectively.

The picture is similar for vegetables, whose prices increased by 13.1% in Greece in May, the fifth largest increase in the bloc.