Inflation soared in April

By Tasos Dasopoulos

The only decrease recorded so far for April is in household expenditure on heating fuels. Elsewhere, energy and food prices continued to rise, pushing businesses and family budgets.

The general index will move up for another month. But whether we will see the national consumer price index double-digit from 8.9% in March, will be seen in the last days of the month, as from the beginning of the month until today there have been many factors that helped the price increases.

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The first is the Easter holidays which pushed up prices in many ways. Food chains have replenished their holiday stocks with higher priced products. In meat, prices fell in the last days of Holy Week, but only in the central markets and the big food chains, but not in the neighborhood butchers, so the picture is mixed. On the other hand, the big outing of the Easter days forced many drivers to fill their tanks with more expensive liquid fuels, at gas stations on the mainland and mainly on the islands. Also, those who did not have somewhere to stay on vacation, paid prices for hotels, inns and all kinds of accommodation, which based on ELSTAT data for March recorded a price increase of 13%.

Electricity tariffs

At the same time, of course, the price of electricity continued to rise in April along with the price of gas, which was affected in addition to the international trend and the growing uncertainty it causes for Europe’s energy efficiency, its ongoing war. Ukraine.

This uncertainty took on a different dimension from yesterday, when Russia implemented the decree issued at the end of March by the Russian President, which says that if the “unfriendly countries”, ie those who support Ukraine, do not pay for gas in rubles, then the power will be cut off. This happened yesterday with Bulgaria and Poland, while in a few days it will be Germany’s turn to pay for natural gas, coming from Russia.

In all this, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Development, which is responsible for the operation of the market, are receiving messages from now on, that in May we will see new food price increases, due to the replacement of stocks of small and large food stores, after the holidays. Easter’s.

Support measures

The final account of inflation should also take into account the impact of the support measures announced at the beginning of the month and implemented gradually, these days.

The 200 euros of the “accuracy check” and the extraordinary allowance of 200 euros in taxis, are a given that boosted inflation, as they were consumed directly in consumption.

The same goes for the fuel subsidy measure, which will be implemented in practice on the last days of the month. The Ministry of Finance explained that the vast majority expect the beneficiaries of the allowance of 40 to 55 euros to spend the entire amount, in a “filling” of the tank, before the end of the month. However, these measures came to support consumers against accuracy and not to fight it. The intervention in the price of electricity, which is expected to be finalized at the end of the month, is what will attempt the golden section. Reduce prices by automatically relieving consumers.

Source: Capital

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