consumption at 15-year lows – Corriere.it

The thirteenth due to price increases this year will be a twelfth and a half. Average consumption for households will decrease in real terms in 2022, reaching a 15-year low. To say so Confcommercio, which estimates an average of 1,532 euros per family in terms of potential consumption deriving only from the thirteenth month. The impact of bills weighs, as in 2021, despite the fact that the volume of the thirteenth net is growing in step with the growth of employee employment.

Christmas more expensive than usual

Christmas 2022 will be more expensive than usual for Italians, who are called to deal with very strong price increases for all products. The first nasty surprise comes on the front of pandoro and panettone. For the industrial ones they record increases of an average of +37%, with peaks for some brands of +59%, the alarm of the Codacons. But also caro-tree: prices have increased by around 40%. Considering that according to the latest available data, the Italian panettone and pandoro market is worth around 700 million euros a year for almost 100,000 tons of Christmas sweets produced by large industrial players, with the same consumption, the price increases for these two products could cost a total of 260 million euros, calculates the Codacons.

Tree and decorations

Even the Christmas tree costs more than previous years By comparing the 2021 prices of some synthetic trees sold by the main commercial chains, it turns out that those same products are now on the market in the same points of sale with increases of around +40% . The same goes for lights and light chains, with average increases of 25%, and for the classic balls and decorations for the Christmas tree, whose prices rise on average by 20%, underlines the association. However, the high energy price and the war in Ukraine have little to do with it: speculation clearly weighs on the retail prices of some products – denounces the president Carlo Rienzi -. As far as non-food goods are concerned, not all Christmas goods are newly produced: in fact, large businesses put back on the market Christmas trees and decorations from previous years, goods purchased in large stocks which are not affected by higher production costs and whose prices are in no way affected by the energy crisis. We believe the Guardia di Finanza should intervene with investigations throughout the territory aimed at verifying the causes of these abnormal price increases and sanctioning the incorrect operators, concludes Rienzi.