Price indices

Another basket targeted at consumers and, in theory, offering attractive prices will be introduced Wednesday. This time, it's the Students' Basket, since schools start on September 11.

In July, the Prices Observatory conducted by Cyprus' Consumer Protection Service (CPS) recorded increased prices for 32 out of 45 categories of staple foods.

There were price deductions for 13 staple food categories. However, there was an overall price hike of 1.21% compared to the previous month. This was attributed to increased prices of fresh and processed agricultural products.

The downward trend in the annual increase in the costs in the agriculture sector continued in June, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

The agricultural input price index rose by 27.7 percent in June from a year ago, easing from the 33.2 percent year-on-year rise recorded in the previous month.

Greece's annual EU-harmonized inflation accelerated to +3.5% in July from +2.8% in June, data showed on Tuesday.

EU-harmonized inflation is an index of components that is used across the EU to measure inflation in a consistent way.

Expectations of a de-escalation in inflation, especially food prices, which concern most people, are clearly diminishing, since production costs, but also profiteering, are set to add another round of price hikes.

Inflation in Cyprus continued to slow in July, rising to 1.5%, the lowest rate since March 2021.

In July 2023, the Consumer Prices Index rose 0.92 points to 115.30 points from 114.38 units in June, according to the Statistical Service.

For the seven months January-July 2023, the consumer price index increased by 4.2% compared to the same period last year. [Financial Mirror]

Eurostat's provisional data on the harmonized consumer price index on Monday showed a rebound in inflation in Greece in July instead of a further de-escalation. Such data are worrying both for their effects on family budgets and overall for the course of the economy's development.

Slovenia's annual inflation rate slowed to 6.1% in July, 0.8 percentage points lower than the month before, but data from the Statistics Office shows rising food prices remain a problem.

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 11.1% in a year, contributing 2 percentage points to the headline inflation rate, data released on 31 July shows.

Alarming data emerged for Greece from Eurostat's final data for June's European Union-harmonized consumer price index: Last month Greece recorded the highest monthly increase at 3.3% in prices in the food category not only in the eurozone, but throughout the European Union. In fact, the increase recorded in food prices in June compared to May was even higher than that in Turkey.

A closely watched survey has showed that Türkiye's large construction sector may be on track for recovery.

The construction activity index climbed to a 21-month high in June, according to the survey conducted by the Turkish Ready Mixed Concrete Association (THBB).

All sub-indices pointed to a recovery in the construction sector compared with last year, said the association.