-
.
- Ελληνικά
The Consumer Protection Service announces the Consumer Product Price Watch for the month of April 2024. The Observatory presents the weighted average price for 250 basic consumer products (food and other products) based on the quantities and prices per day at which these products were sold in 400 retail outlets nationwide throughout the month.
The purpose of the Observatory is to provide consumers with an objective comparative reflection of purchase prices from all retail outlets, supermarkets, bakeries, bakeries, bakeries, kiosks, etc.In conclusion, the assessment for the month of April shows that despite the increase in fuel prices and thus inflation from 1.2% in March to 2.4% in April, as a result of geopolitical developments, inflation in the food sector continued to moderate, reaching 1.89% in January-April 2024 compared to the same period last year and 2.14% in January-March 2024. This moderation is mainly due to the 0.95% decrease recorded by agricultural products compared to the previous month.
As detailed in Service's table of price indices for the month of April, out of a total of 45 categories of basic products, 21 categories recorded an increase and 18 categories recorded a decrease, while another 6 categories recorded no change. In particular, frozen molluscs/shellfish and frozen fish recorded increases of 7.5% and 6.2% respectively after a three-month period of continuous decreases, 4.7% for sugar after six months of continuous decreases, 3.4% for broths, 3,3% for bottled water, 3% for oil due to new moderate increases in the price of olive oil compared to the previous month, 2.8% for juices, breakfast cereals and baby food, 2.7% for baby food, 2.2% for frozen pasta and 2% for canned meat.
18 categories recorded a decrease, with the most important being fresh vegetables and greens by 13.1%, vegetable cooking fat by 10.8%, flour by 5.4%, fresh fish and shellfish by 4.6%, eggs by 4%, pasta by 2.3%, bagels by 1.5%, rice and biscuits by 1.2% and baby milk and fabric softeners by 1.3%.
As part of the continuous monitoring of the market and recording of trends as they evolve from international and domestic conditions, the Service has again carried out on 16/5/2024 the recording of prices of 55 common and very important products for the household in three supermarkets in Nicosia. As shown in the comparative Observatory, the difference in value of the most expensive basket from the cheapest is 6.0% or €241.84 compared to €228.54, with the middle basket at €240.02. In addition, the benefit to the consumer of applying the zero VAT rate to the 11 products covered by the measure amounts to between €7.21-€7.78 on total purchases worth around €90, depending on the supermarket.
It is reiterated that the Consumer Protection Service continues intensive checks on the implementation of the zero VAT rate measure, recording the prices of 88 products from all categories approved in nine different hypermarkets, at 58 points of sale nationwide. The current assessment from the implementation of the measure based on the results of the controls is that it has had a positive effect on prices and thus inflation since prices are being contained and in about 70% of products, prices have remained at the levels of 5 May when the measure was implemented. According to the results of the last control carried out on 15/5/2024, compliance is universal with deviation rates for milk, eggs, sugar, coffee, baby diapers, baby milk and vegetables at 70-100% and for other products at a lower rate.
The Consumer Protection Service clarifies that the Price Observatories are prepared solely for consumer information purposes and in no way constitute advice. The Price Observatory is not intended to and cannot replace the market research which each consumer must carry out on the basis of his or her own preferences, data and needs, nor is it intended to indicate to consumers the points of sale to choose or specific products.
In particular, it should be noted that some of the products included in the Price Observatory are subject to qualitative differences which cannot be determined. To this end, the Service encourages consumers to carry out meaningful market research before making purchases, taking into account the results of this Observatory.
The detailed data of the Observatory are provided at website of the Consumer Protection Service.
(MS/AF)
Contents of this article including associated images are owned by PIO
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
Source
