Istat: “Shopping cart 6.7% more expensive in May, the strongest increase since 1986”. Consumers: “560 euros more just for food”

L’inflation accelerates and makes itself felt more and more in the pockets of consumers, making the adaptation of salary to protect purchasing power. TO maggionotes Istat, the prices of the so-called “shopping cart”Have risen at a rate it hasn’t seen since 36 years old. If inflation in the month just ended has settled at +6,9%the prices of food, household and personal care have grown by 6,7%, from + 5.7% in April. On the other hand, a sop to the institute also arrives pil: in the first quarter it is not dropped by 0.2% as emerged from the initial estimateindeed it is gone up albeit slightly (0.1%). An estate that hardly consoles low-middle-income families struggling with unprecedented price rises since 1986.

It is once again the increase in the prices ofenergy, aggravated by the war in Ukraine, to drive the increases. And the consequences spread more and more to other product sectors, “whose increased production costs they reverberate on the final stage of marketing “. Result: the consumer prices of almost all other types of products accelerate, with the processed food which cause the price growth of the so-called “shopping cart” to rise by one point to + 6.7%, as had not happened since March 1986 (when it was + 7.2%). The prices of products with high purchasing frequency also run (from + 5.8% to + 6.7%).

According to the consumer protection association Assoutentiwith these increases, “a family, just to eat, must take into account a higher expenditure on average equal to +562 euros per year. The government cannot stand by ”, asks the president Furio Truzzi“And, in the face of what is an emergency, it must adopt extraordinary measures to protect families”. Massimiliano Donapresident of the National Consumers Union, estimates for his part “an overall sting, in terms of the increase in the cost of living, equal to 2421 euros on an annual basis, 981 for housing, water and electricity, 573 euros for transport, 561 for food and beverages “. To protest against rising retail prices, for the first time in Italy all consumer associations will take to the streets next June 10 giving life to the “Protest of empty pots“- inspired by”saucepan“Argentine – asking for an urgent meeting with the government and the adoption of a platform of interventions to calm prices, fight speculation and include consumer representatives among the social partners to discuss the fight against energy poverty, support for families and more fragile subjects, on the determination and surveillance of prices, on tax burdens.

In the other euro area countries the situation is even more serious. In May, the average inflation rate in the Eurozone reached the8.1%, a level never reached since the creation of the Monetary Union according to the flash estimate provided today by Eurostat. Also in this case, the dynamics of energy prices are fueling growth. In April, the inflation rate in the Eurozone stood at 7.4%.

–