By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

The figures announced by Eurostat on food price hikes in Greece in December were extremely worrying.
Only Malta had higher food inflation across the Eurozone at 10.2% compared to 8.9%.

Even more worryingly, only in Greece, Malta and Cyprus were food prices higher in December than in November.

All this despite the fact that in the general harmonized index of inflation we are neither among the countries with the lowest inflation, nor among those with the highest but somewhere in the middle. 11th out of 25 to be exact.

The processing of the data on the products that make up the Eurostat food index shows that in November Greece in 14 out of 22, i.e. 2 out of 3, categories the price increases were higher than the European average.

In meat, Greece had the fourth largest increase in the Eurozone behind Bulgaria, Croatia and Belgium. In all 5 categories of meat, the increases in Greece are much higher than the Community average.
Greece Eurozone
Beef 6.1% 3.4%
Pork 10.4% 6.7%
Lamb-Goat 8.6% 5.4%
Fish-Seafood 8.4% 4.5%
Poultry 4.3% -0.3%

In beef, where the difference is almost double, our country has the 4th largest price increase behind Lithuania, Bulgaria and Croatia.
Same picture in pork, 4th most expensive behind Croatia, Bulgaria and Spain.
…the championship continues in poultry where Greece is behind only Luxembourg and Belgium.
In seafood and fish, inflation has doubled since September, with the result that Greece is behind only Malta and Austria here.

In cheese, the situation is still hopeless since inflation in Greece is almost 9 times higher than the Community average and of course our country is declared “champion”. It is 4 times higher in eggs with many countries having much higher prices:
Greece Eurozone
Cheese 9.4% 1.1%
Egg 4% 0.4%

In the category of oils and fats the differences are infuriating with Greece being 8 times higher than the Eurozone. In this category, inflation has more than tripled in our country since July.
Greece Eurozone
Oils-Fats 34.2% 4.5%
Butter 1.1% -10.5%
Olive oil 54.5% 50.9%
Other oils -18.3% -20%

In olive oil, 58.5% is atrocious, but it is not the highest since on Portuguese shelves it was found at an unimaginable 64.8%. In the rest of the oils (sunflower oil, soybean oil, corn oil, etc.) the prices fall at about the same rate as in the rest of Europe

In fruit, inflation accelerated significantly to 14.1%, which is also the highest rate in the Eurozone. The figures show that until May the increases in our country were below the Community average. A trend that changed in June and has remained unchanged since then. Significantly higher in vegetables, 5th in the Eurozone with 13.7%

Greece Eurozone
Fruit 14.9% 9.1%
Vegetables 13.7% 9.9%

Wine completes the list of products that hurt Greek wallets more, but we are nowhere near the first places.

Greece Eurozone
Wine 5.8% 4.4%

On the contrary, the price increases in bread, sugar, potatoes, beer, coffee and juices were smaller in Greece than in the Eurozone. In fact, in our country, yogurt prices have decreased (4.7%) compared to increases of 2% in the euro area.