Kicking off the day with a mug of hot coffee is a daily routine for many. However, recent price rises might make this morning staple almost a luxury. Data for August 2022 show that the price of coffee in the EU was on average 16.9% higher than in August 2021, while in August 2021, the price of coffee was on average 0.5% higher than in August 2020. Since October 2021, annual inflation has been on the rise.
For consumers that drink their coffee with milk and/or sugar, this morning ritual might be even more expensive since the prices of those items increased even more over the last year. The price of fresh whole milk increased on average 24.3% between August 2021 and August 2022, while that for fresh low-fat milk increased by 22.2% in the same period, Eurostat reports.
In August 2022, annual inflation for sugar was at +33.4%, from +0.8% in August 2021.
Sugar up 109.2% for Poland in August 2022
Data show that all 4 items registered an increase in prices in all EU Member States, except for Malta, which reported no change in the price of fresh low-fat milk.
When examining the highest increases in annual inflation for each product, Lithuania and Estonia feature in three of the four products: coffee and fresh low-fat milk for both, fresh whole milk (+45.8%) for Lithuania and sugar (+81.2%) for Estonia.
The largest annual inflation in August 2022 was reported for sugar, with notable rises in Poland, up 109.2%, followed by Estonia (+81.2%), Latvia (+58.3%), Bulgaria (+44.9%) and Cyprus (+43.2%).
When it comes to coffee, Finland registered the highest annual inflation at +43.6% in August 2022, followed by Lithuania (+39.9%), Sweden (+36.7%), Estonia (+36.4%) and Hungary (+34.3%).
Fans of milk in Hungary, Lithuania and Croatia saw substantial rises in prices in both whole fat milk and low fat. The highest annual increases in prices for whole fat milk among the EU Member States in August 2022 were logged in Hungary (+51.7%), Lithuania (+46.8%), Croatia (+43.5%), Czechia (+43.3%) and Latvia (+40.1%), and for low-fat milk in Lithuania (+50.2%), Croatia (+41.2%), Estonia (+38.9%), Germany (+30.6%) and Hungary (+30.1%).
