IELKA: Stabilization of Inflation in Supermarkets, Contrasting Trends in Food
Thursday, February 27, 2025
From the results of the recent research by the Institute of Retail Consumer Goods Research (IELKA), it appears that inflation in supermarket chains in Greece is positive, with an increase of 0.09% in January 2025. Specifically, the research analyzes the price trends from January 2024 to January 2025, focusing on large supermarket chains. The stabilizing trend is due to the interaction between price increases and decreases in various categories. In particular, increases are recorded in categories such as cocoa, coffee, fresh meat, and alcoholic beverages, while decreases concern products such as detergents, baby foods, and frozen items. In detail, the largest price decreases are recorded in categories such as detergents and cleaning products, where a decrease of 9.36% is observed, pet food and supplies with a decrease of 7.40%, baby and children’s foods with a decrease of 4.42%, and deli meats with 2.76%. These decreases are due to market normalization after the pandemic and to the reduction in producer prices for certain products.
The largest increases in biscuits, chocolates, confectionery
Conversely, larger increases are recorded in categories such as biscuits, chocolates, and confectionery, with an increase of 8.89%, appetizers, cured meats and other served items with 4.57%, fresh meats with 3.05%, water, soft drinks and juices with 3.01%, and fresh fish and seafood with 2.87%. These increases are influenced by international factors, such as cocoa and coffee prices, as well as the reduction in livestock in 2024 due to diseases. Of the 23 categories examined, 10 recorded a decrease and 13 recorded an increase in prices.
Contrasting price trends in supermarkets
Additionally, it is worth mentioning that, based on an announcement from the Ministry of Development and Investments regarding food inflation, the indicators of Eurostat and IELKA depict a different picture for the price trends in the overall market and in the supermarket channel. According to Eurostat data, food inflation increased from 1.0% in June 2024 to 3.2% in September 2024, showing a strong upward trend during the summer. It then declined to 1.0% in October and closed the year with a negative sign in December (-0.7%). In January 2025, the change in food prices across the market as a whole rose to 0.1%, confirming a stabilization trend. In contrast, prices in supermarkets, as recorded by IELKA, followed a different path. From June to August 2024, prices showed a sharp decrease, with the lowest point in July (-1.92%). From September onwards, the trend stabilized, with small fluctuations and smaller variations. January 2025 records a mild increase of 0.09%, confirming that supermarket prices did not follow the strong upward trend of general food inflation observed in the summer of 2024. The difference between the two indicators suggests that large supermarket chains absorbed part of the increases recorded in the overall market, maintaining more controlled prices in key product categories.
Source: FoodReporter February 6th 2025 #1342, page 5.