Inflation in Belgium rose to 5.4% in June, with consumers still grappling with higher prices for essentials like food and energy.
According to the European Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) published by Statbel on Monday, inflation in June reached 5.4% – up from 4.9% in May.
The Belgian statistics office Statbel said that housing, water and energy were the biggest drivers of inflation in June; energy inflation in particular amounted to 25.6%, compared to 20.4% in May and 17.1% in April.
Statbel noted that energy inflation in June was somewhat artificial, as it is skewed by the winding down of energy supports offered by the Belgian government. However, electricity is still 13.3% more expensive than a year ago, while natural gas is 128% more expensive, and heating oil has increased 25.5%.
Statbel said that the sub-indices with the biggest upward impact on inflation in June were natural gas, tobacco, domestic fuel oil and electricity.
Meanwhile, fuels and lubricants, dairy products, meat, furniture, vehicle purchases and bread and cereals had the biggest negative impact on inflation in June.
The cost of food
Price inflation for unprocessed foods like fruit, vegetables, meat and fish reached 1.6% in June, compared to 1.3% in May and 1.1% in April. Compared to last month prices have increased by an average of 0.8%.
Inflation for processed food products slowed slightly in June, down to 4.5% from 4.6% in May and April. Compared to last month, prices have increased by an average of 0.6%.
Overall food inflation reached 1.5% in June, compared to 1.3% in May. Food inflation has been gradually decreasing since the peak in March 2023, when inflation hit 20.3%.
Core inflation, which excludes energy and unprocessed food products, stood at 3.5% in June, compared to 3.4% in May and 3.7% in April.
Inflation in neighbouring countries
Eurostat is set to publish a full comparison of HICP figures for EU countries later this week (17 July). Until then, comparisons between Belgium and its neighbours can be made using the initial flash estimate of HICP inflation for June.
In Belgium, the flash estimate of HICP was 5.5%, up from 4.9% in May. Meanwhile in the Netherlands inflation rose to 3.4% in June, up from 2.7% a month previously.
In France, inflation fell from 2.6% in May to 2.5% in June, while the first flash estimate of HICP inflation for Germany for June was 2.5%, a decrease from 2.8% in May.
