Food price hikes are easy, but drop is harder

A Eurostat survey on the course of food retail prices confirms what Greek consumers already know - all too well: that prices are easy to rise and hard to fall.

The European statistics agency has found that when industry prices change, there is a major difference in the rate and pace of the transfer of that change to consumer rates when it comes to an hike or a drop: In percentage terms, 29.4 percent of the increase is passed on to consumers against just 8.1 percent of the decline.

This phenomenon is not exclusive to Greece, as it is also observed in other European countries such as in the Czech Republic, in Switzerland and in Spain. However, there also are countries, such as Germany, that have the same rate of modification in retail prices as industry rates.

The degree of price changes that is passed on to consumers also depends on the food sector in...