Filenews 2 July 2022 - by Theano Thiopoulou
The rise in prices has not stopped, with inflation rising every month, making the lives of thousands of households and businesses even more difficult and heightening concerns as to where it might go. The harmonised consumer index in June was at 9.1%, up from 8.8% in May and 2.2% last year, according to Eurostat estimates published yesterday. In the Eurozone as a whole, inflation strengthened by half a point, compared to the previous month, to 8.6%, with energy continuing to "burn" households and businesses more and more. Energy prices in the euro area jumped 41.9% in June, up from a year earlier and up 39.1% in May.
Cyprus still has inflation above the Eurozone average, although it is among the countries that have a single-digit inflation rate. Eurostat calculates inflation on the basis of the harmonised index of consumer prices, while the national index of consumer prices, compiled by the Statistical Office, will be announced next Thursday, 7 July. Inflation based on the national index is generally higher than that of Eurostat and in May stood at 9.1%.
The worst inflation performance at the euro area level is in the Baltic states. The harmonised consumer index in June was 22% in Estonia, followed by Lithuania with 20.5%, Latvia 19% and Slovakia 12.5%. The top five countries with high inflation are closed by Greece with 12%, Slovenia with 10.8%, Belgium with 10.5% and Spain with 10%, while Portugal had inflation of 9%. On the other hand, the lowest levels of inflation (5.8%) are in France and Malta, two countries that also have less energy dependence on Russia, while France also has cheaper electricity from nuclear power. Germany is the only eurozone country that had its inflation falling to 8.2% in June, from 8.7% in May.
In the Eurozone, energy prices rose 41.9% in June on an annual basis, up from 39.1% in May. After the action, the largest increases in June were recorded in the group food, alcohol, tobacco, with a rate of 8.9% from 7.5% in May. Prices of non-industrial products rose 4.3% from 4.2% and services by 3.4% compared to 3.5% in May, which recorded a slight slowdown. So-called core inflation, which does not include energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, fell to 3.7% from 3.8% in May, but the index of structural inflation, if only energy and food prices are subtracted, rose 4.6% from 4.4%.
