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- Ελληνικά
The Consumer Protection Service announces the Consumer Product Price Watch for the month of March 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, which is carried out for the month of March, shows that the decrease in inflation from 1.6-1.8% in December to February to 1.2% in March is reflected in the moderation of inflation in the food sector, which amounted to 2.14% in January-March 2024 compared to the same period last year and 2.36% in January-February 2024. This moderation is basically due to the 2.09% decrease recorded by agricultural products compared to the previous month.
As shown in detail in the Service's Table of price indices for the month of March, out of a total of 45 categories of basic products, 26 categories recorded an increase, of which 10 recorded an increase of less than 1%. In particular, in addition to the 7.6% increase recorded by fresh vegetables and greens, moderate increases were recorded by cold cuts by 4.4%, frozen burgers by 4%, pulses by 2.7%, frozen breaded and precooked fish by 2.3%, oil, breakfast cereals and sanitary towels by 2.2%, respectively, and baby food by 2%. This was followed, at much lower rates, by increases in toilet paper of 1.8%, detergents and fabric softeners of 1.6% and 1.4%, respectively, and fresh meat of 1.3%.
Decreases were recorded in the other 19 categories of the Observatory, most notably the continued significant decline in frozen molluscs/shellfish by 22.4% and sugar by 6.2%, vegetable cooking fat by 3.6%, frozen fish by 3.3%, flour by 2.6%, 1.3% in eggs and other products at lower rates.
In the context of continuous monitoring of the market and recording of trends as they evolve from international and domestic conditions, on 16/04/2024 the Service has again carried out the price recording of 47 common and very important products for the household in three supermarkets in Larnaca. As shown in the comparative Observatory, the difference in value of the most expensive basket from the cheapest is 11.7% or €210.60 compared to €188.54 with the middle basket at €206.41. In addition, the benefit to the consumer of applying the zero VAT rate to the 11 products covered by the measure amounts to between €6.55-€7.85 on total purchases worth approximately €80-€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 prices of 88 products from all categories approved in nine different hypermarkets, in 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 on 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 15/04/2024, compliance is universal with deviation rates for milk, eggs, sugar, coffee, baby diapers 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 have 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.
(B]PIO[/B]
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