Record inflation as prices persist to bite

Inflation in Cyprus has broken every record in the book, as it increased by 10.9% year on year in July, driven by hikes in electricity and fuel, said the Statistical Services.

The highest inflation rate Cyprus witnessed was 10.8% in December 1981.

In July, electricity prices rose 61.7% and fuel 44.1%, according to CyStat’s latest data.

For July, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 1.39 units and reached 113.63 units compared to 112.24 units in June.

During the seven months, January – July, the CPI increased by 8.2% compared with the same period last year.

CyStat said, “The largest changes when compared to the index of July 2021 was recorded in electricity (61.7%) and petroleum products (44.1%).”

Electricity costs increased by 16.7% in July compared to the previous month.

Compared to July 2021, the largest price changes were monitored in the categories of housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (29.2%) and transport (25.3%).

Clothing and footwear recorded the largest reduction in the CPI compared to the previous month, as prices went down 10.2%.

For January – July 2022, compared to the same seven months last year, the inflation rate reached 8.23%, with the largest changes recorded in housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (20.1%) and transport (18.7%).