Cost of living up as prices show increase of 2.4% in a year

In an announcement on its official website, CyStat shared that the cost of living, or how much things cost, has gone up in Cyprus. The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, a way to measure how much prices change, showed that prices were 2.4% higher between July 2022 and July 2023. And in just one month, from June 2023 to July 2023, prices went up 1.4%.

From January to July 2023, prices increased by 4.6% compared to the same time last year. This means that things cost more now than they did before.

Compared to July 2022, some things had much bigger price changes. The cost of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages went up by 10.4%, which is a significant jump. On the other hand, the cost of Transport went down by 6.5%.

When we look at June 2023, the biggest price increase was in Clothing and Footwear, which got 11.8% cheaper. Over the period from January to July 2023, compared to the same months last year, the biggest price increases were seen in Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (up by 9.1%), Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels (up by 7.8%), and Restaurants and Hotels (up by 6.7%).

They also looked at where things come from to understand why prices change. Compared to July 2022, the prices of Energy went down by 14.1%, which means things like electricity and fuel cost less. But the prices of Food, Alcoholic Beverages, and Tobacco went up by 8.7%, which is quite a bit. And when compared to the previous month, Energy prices increased the most by 8.5%.

[Information sourced from CyStat and CNA]