January inflation leaps to 25-year high at 6.2%
Greece’s January inflation hit a high last seen in 1997, jumping to 6.2% from 5.1% in December 2021, driven by skyrocketing housing, transportation and food prices, the country’s statistical authority reported on Tuesday.
According to ELSTAT, the average consumer price index for the 12-month period from February 2021 to January 2022 increased by 1.9%, compared the February 2020 to January 2021 period.
The annual rate of change of the average CPI between the 12-month period from February 2020 to January 2021 was -1.5% against February 2019 to January 2020, it added.
The 6.2% increase of the overall CPI in January, ELSTAT said, was due chiefly to a 22.6% spike in the cost of housing on the back of rising rates in rent and utilities like electricity and heating, with natural gas posting a whopping leap of 154%.
The cost of transportation is also hitting households, growing by 11.1% as a result of hikes in the price of purchasing a vehicle and keeping it running with increasingly costly fuel.
The cost of clothing and footwear, meanwhile, also rose 7%, along with a 5.2% hike in food and non-alcoholic beverages.
ELSTAT noted that prices continued to go up for such essentials as bread, pasta, meat, poultry, fish, dairy, olive oil, fruits and vegetables, coffee and a slew of other products.
