The national consumer price index is estimated to have grown by almost 5% in April compared to the same time last year, with the official announcements expected on Friday by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).
Eurostat has already announced its estimates on the European Union-harmonized index since last week, describing an annual increase of 4.6% in Greece.
Significant increases are expected in both fuel prices and food and a range of services, mainly those related to transport. On Thursday, though, the Research Institute for Retail Consumer Goods (IELKA) announced that prices in large supermarkets increased by 2.23% in April compared to a year ago.
Hikes were recorded in 14 of the 23 categories monitored by IELKA, which ranged from 0.57% in cheese products to 11.96% in fruit and vegetables, which IELKA attributes to adverse weather conditions. Significant increases, however, are observed in a number of other products, such as baby and children’s food (7.43%), cold cuts (7.11%), and breakfast items (3.56%), an element that shows that imposing a ceiling on the profit margin is not a measure capable and sufficient to prevent price hikes.
The fact that fuel prices remained at very high levels throughout April – skyrocketing transportation costs and overall production costs – while the same happened to the prices of many raw and secondary materials, resulted in large increases in producer prices in industry. It also resulted in increases in agriculture and livestock, as Greece remains significantly dependent on imports not only of oil, but also of a multitude of raw and secondary materials. Even if these have not been fully and immediately passed on to consumer prices, this will happen, albeit gradually, in the coming period – depending on the resilience of industry, wholesalers and retailers – maintaining inflationary pressures for a long period of time.
ELSTAT said last week that the producer price index in industry rose in March by 8.3% compared to March 2025.