In Albania, prices are only registering a constant rise. And if this was not enough, this trend has also managed to exceed the average rate of increase in European Union member countries by twice as much. Such fact is confirmed by the Institute of Statistics, according to which, the annual increase of prices in Albania during the month of March of this year was 3.8%, an index which for the EU member countries for the same period of time, was on average 1.6%.
“The annual difference of the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices in March 2017 is 3.8%. This difference has been mainly affected by the annual growth of “Food and non-alcoholic beverages” group by 8.5%, followed by “Goods and different services” with 3.4%, “Transport” with 3.2%, “Leisure and culture” with 2.5%, etc”, say experts of the Institute of Statistics in relation to the performance of this indicator. With such level, Albania heads the list of EU member countries ranked in terms of the increase of consumer prices.
According to this ranking, Albania is followed by Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which have registered a 3% increase of prices in annual terms. Then, the list continues with Central European countries, such as Hungary, Czech Republic or Belgium, with an annual price increase of 2%, a little higher than the EU average of 1.6%.
Then, the list continues with countries where prices have seen a decrease, such as Switzerland or Romania, where they almost register no changes from one year to another (the level of price increases ranges from 0% to 0.5%). And then there’s Iceland, which from one year to another has seen prices drop by -1.5%. This is a country known for its high standards of living, but at the same time, a recent high economic development, in stark contrast to Albania, which sees price increases not on an annual basis, but on a monthly basis, with state institutions unable to calculate it and prevent it from going beyond the average legal threshold of 2%-2.5%, known as the official inflation rate set by the Bank of Albania.
Let us not forget that the unstoppable rise in prices is caused by the food and non alcoholic beverages, a group that occupies the population’s consumer basket. This means that these price increases is felt by all of us, regardless of the social category that we belong to.
