Bulgaria Ranks First in EU in Terms of Food Price Increases, Second on Inflation, Eurostat Survey

Since the end of 2006, and especially since July 2007, food prices in the EU have been growing at a much faster pace than the the overall inflation, a Eurostat survey points out. The tendency has also been observed in the Eurozone.

In April 2008 food prices in the EU were 7.1% higher than in April 2006. The overall inflation for the period stood at 3.6%. In the Eurozone the percentages are respectively 6.2% and 3.3%.

In March and April 2008 food prices in the EU and in the Eurozone saw the largest increases so far (statistics is recorded since 1996). Food and total inflation rose at a similar pace, ie +31% and +27% for the EU, and +30% and +27% in the Eurozone.

The annual appreciation of foods varies from 3.2% in Portugal to 25.4% in Bulgaria. Out country is followed by Latvia (21.7%), Estonia (18.3%) and Lithuania (18.1%). The slowest appreciation (aside from Portugal) is seen in Holland (5.4%), France (5.5%), Cyprus (5.8%) and Italy (5.9%).

On average, European households spend 14.6% of their budget on food. This percentage varies between the different countries, from 9.5% in Great Britain to 22.9% in Bulgaria, 23.2% in Lithuania and 34.5% in Romania.

The survey studied nine main food groups, among which meat, bread and grain foods, as well as milk, cheese and eggs. Those account for 60% of the component. In April the average price of milk, eggs and cheese rose 14.9% y/y, of bread and grains by 10.7% and of meat by 4.1%.

In April, the y/y appreciation of meat varied from 0.7% in Portugal to 19.1% in Lithuania, that of bread and grains from 6.3% in Holland to 38.4% in Bulgaria, and that of milk, cheese and eggs from 3.4% in Cyprus to 35.4% in Estonia.

Bulgaria is first in terms of appreciation of oil and butter (by 85.8%) and fruits (45.7%).

FoodTotal InflationBulgaria 25,413,4Latvia 21,717,4Estonia 18,311,6Lithuania 18,111,9Hungary 14,86,8Romania 12,48,7Slovenia 12,26,2Czech Rep. 9,96,7Malta 9,74,1Ireland 8,43,3Slovakia 7,93,7Austria 7,63,4Denmark 7,53,4United Kingdom 7,23EU 7,13,6Greece 74,4Sweden 6,83,2Poland 6,84,3Spain 6,84,2Finland 6,43,3Germany 6,42,6Luxembourg 6,34,3Euro area 6,23,3Belgium 6,14,1Italy 5,93,6Cyprus 5,84,3France 5,53,4Netherlands 5,41,7Portugal 3,22,5