Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper): In August food prices in Belgium rose only 0.04% significantly down from 0.54% in July. Energy prices increased by 6.96% less than previous months. Basic inflation dropped to 2.73%
The CPI keeps an eye on inflation by watching how the prices of everyday items like groceries and other things we buy change over time. Food prices have gone up a lot in the past few years because the pandemic messed up how goods get to stores, and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia caused an energy problem.
What factors are driving Belgium’s food and energy price trends?
Food prices including drinks only went up by a tiny bit 0.04% in August which is much lower than the 0.54% increase in the month before. In Belgium food prices have dropped a lot from a high of 17.02% in March last year. Energy prices are going down too. In August the increase in energy prices was 6.96% which is a lot less than the 14.01% in July and 15.10% in June. Natural gas prices dropped by 1.6% electricity prices fell by 0.3%, and fuel prices were 3.9% lower this month compared to July.
According to Statbel the organization that keeps track of numbers in Belgium the recent large increases in energy prices were because the government is no longer channeling extra money for energy costs into the regular budget as it did at that is during the crisis. They believe that this change in backing will keep on affecting energy prices till February 2025 or so. The basic inflation rate excluding energy and raw food fell to 2.73% in August from 3.04% in July and 2.97% in June. The rise in the price of services eased from 4.21% July to 4.04% August however, rents were up from 4.63% to 4.74%.
The prices were pushed up by higher housing water and energy costs August with levels rising but food and non alcoholic beverages pulled them down again heavily. More specifically it was mostly tobacco, hotel rooms and non alcoholic drinks that pushed up these prices.
