The Esteban family has been shopping for years every seven days in the same supermarket in Barcelona. This week's ticket with 37 basic products such as dairy products, rice, fruit or meat has gone from 100 euros in October last year to 117 this month.
The rise in the last 12 months goes by neighborhood but in no case falls below 5% of chocolate or some feminine hygiene products. Above all, the price of sugar is surprising. A kilo of the extra-white variety cost 0.79 euros in October last year, while yesterday they needed 1.49 euros. It is 89% more. This real growth in the supermarket of the Catalan capital is much higher than the 13% annual increase that appears in the INE statistics published yesterday. Once again, statistics are not always capable of capturing the reality of citizens in all its harshness.
Another example. The INE maintains that fresh legumes and vegetables have become 18% more expensive in the last 12 months, but on the Esteban family's real shopping list, a kilo of green beans of the Perona variety went from 6.7 euros to 8, 96, 34% more. The increase in sheep cheese also stands out: the 250-gram wedge is sold for 3.75 euros. It is one euro more than a year ago.
In other basic products such as rice, meat or potatoes, significant increases were also recorded. A kilo of rice is sold at 1.69 euros compared to 1.49 euros in October 2021. The growth is 19%. In meat, the Esteban family buys Duroc-type loin: the kilo is sold at 11.95 euros. It is 26% more than a year ago. Potatoes increased their ticket price by 35.2%, to 2.69 euros.
The dimension of the problem of the increase in food prices is greater because it is not accompanied by an increase in wages. The latest data compiled by the USO union show that, up to September, a rise of 2.6% has been approved in the 653 collective agreements signed. If the people who work in the Esteban family did so in one of those companies where salaries have risen by 2.6%, it would imply that every time they go to the supermarket the extra 17 euros that the shopping basket costs them only 2.5 euros will be assumed with the salary increase. The remaining 14-odd euros will be deducted from other expenses or they will have to start thinking about getting into debt.
The food bill is only part of the growing expenses that families have to face. Those that keep a fixed-rate mortgage alive and have a revision will also have to face increases of up to 150 euros for every 100,000 euros of loan. And the third great cost that is also skyrocketing is energy, especially electricity and gas, but also fuel. The measures to mitigate these effects are limited to specific aid and fertilizer subsidies.
The CC.OO. he recalled yesterday that "wages are not responsible for the sharp rise in inflation" but rather it is the direct translation that companies make of the increase in costs such as energy or transport to food.
These measures have partially moderated the increase in inflation which, according to Funcas, has begun a decline. What is not clear is when the rise in food prices will start to slow down. The problem is that the increase of up to 89% in some products will be almost impossible to lower and all or part of it will be permanently incorporated into the prices.
