From fruit to flights, from bills to free time. Inflation in June is rampant and reaches 8%, the highest rate in 36 years. For the “shopping cart” with food, for home and personal care, the increase is even greater and reaches 8.3%, according to preliminary Istat data. This is also a record since January 1986.
There are also nasty surprises for those who can afford to go on vacation: airline ticket prices almost double (+ 90.4%) and hotels and other accommodations are 18.1% more expensive than a year ago.
Prices also mark an absolute peak at a European level and are up by 8.6% in the euro zone, a level never recorded by Eurostat since the birth of the common currency. In Germany, the inflation rate is 8.2%, in Spain, even 10%, while in France it remains more contained, at 6.5%, but still far from the European Central Bank’s objective of a rate close to 2%.
“Inflationary tensions continue to spread from energy goods to other product sectors”, is the comment from Istat. Hence, increases of 39.9% for non-regulated energy goods such as fuels and 64.3% for regulated ones, but also increases of 8.8% for food and even higher for fresh fruit and vegetables. Prices are also much more expensive for recreational, cultural and personal care services (+ 5%) and for transport-related services (+ 7.2%). Core inflation, net of energy goods and fresh food, marks a maximum of + 3.8%: it is the highest level since August 1996. While the acquired price increase that would occur in 2022 in the case, all theoretical , of zero price changes in the rest of the year is already 6.5%.
These statistics worry trade unions and politics, business associations such as consumers, investors and economists. The secretary of the Uil, Pierluigi Bombardieri, denounces “intolerable speculations”. While the leader of the Cisl, Luigi Sbarra, calls for a new income policy in the face of “an emergency that no longer allows for postponements or divisions”. And the head of the CGILMaurizio Landini, observes: “people can’t do it, immediate action is needed”.
Minimum wage, Landini: “It’s time for structural reforms, people can’t do it”
Even the deputies 5 stars of the work commission asked the executive to “summon the social partners immediately, without waiting any longer”. Instead, the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, directs his attack to the “left”, accusing him of thinking of other things, “laws on free drugs and easy citizenship for immigrants. Madness”, tweets.
The employers’ associations do not hide their fears. Confesercenti sees a “boulder on household consumption and growth“, Confcommercio fears for September” serious negative effects “also on the GDP. And Federdistribuzione reports risks for the Italian agri-food chains.
Consumer associations calculate the increase in the cost of living. The Codacons indicates a “record blow” of € 3,192 per year for a family of four and expects inflation to reach 10%.
The National Consumers Union estimates, only for billsan average cost of € 514 for electricity and € 394 for gas, and is pushing for a return to administered prices.
Federconsumatori underlines that the increases already lead to waivers, as attested by a a drop of more than 16% in the consumption of meat and fish
European exchanges collect data without large changes or high sales. The analyst Vincenzo Longo, IG’s premium manager, observes “it has been an important depression semester” and the markets “are looking to the future and in particular to the decisions of the ECB which could already consider a rate cut after the recession that is approaching”. Above all, the US inflation figure of 10 July would be expected.
For the Bocconi University economist Tommaso Monicelli “there are two worlds. The first in which inflation is low and stable” as in the last 20 years. “The second (vicious) in which inflation is high and unstable” and in this case prices have a life of their own feeding themselves with expectations, writes the professor on Twitter. For Monicelli, in the second world, “a ceiling on the price of gas is of little use to curb inflation. It all depends on the credibility of central banks”.
Istat also released the preliminary estimate of GDP and territorial employment, in 2021, which shows growth driven by the northern regions, the richest and most affected by the pandemic crisis in 2020. In particular, the North West runs, where GDP rises by 7.4%.
A surprise comes from work. In fact, employment is growing more in the South, with an increase of 1.3% which doubles the national average (0.6%). This expansion is mainly due to construction, which in the South recorded the greatest increase in value added (+ 25.9%) in the golden year of bonuses.
Source: Ansa
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