Greece overall inflation low but food prices are soaring

Greece’s Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices was confirmed to have risen 3.5% year-on-year in July, up from 2.8% in June, by the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat. 

Despite the spike, Greek inflation is the sixth lowest among EU members: countries with lower inflation are Belgium (1.7%), Luxembourg (2%), Spain (2.1%), Cyprus (2.4%) and Denmark (3.2%). 

Of those, Cyprus and Spain temporarily eliminated VAT on essential goods, such as foods. 

Greece does, however, have the ninth highest inflation in foods, 13%, compared to 12.4% among all 27 EU-members and 11.6% in the 20-member eurozone. 

Greece’s food inflation has been bucking the eurozone trend since April.