Belgium's inflation according to the national consumer price index (CPI) measure has increased from 3.16% in December to 4.08%. The main drivers were electricity and natural gas.
In January, the inflation figure rose from 3.16% to 4.08%, the Belgian statistics office Statbel reported on Thursday. This marks the first since August 2023 that the 4% threshold has been breached. The rate refers to the consumer price index (CPI), which tracks the changing prices of consumer goods and services.
This means that if an average household spent €100 on goods in January 2024, it will now pay around €104 this month for the same products and services. The fact the figure is much higher than the previous 3.2% inflation rate means that the rate at which life is becoming more expensive has increased.
The main price increases in January were recorded for electricity (+26.7%) and natural gas (+93.3%).
"The high inflation in recent months is due to the extinguishing effect of the impact of the basic electricity and natural gas package," the agency noted. "In March 2024, the last impact of the basic package disappeared from the index. Therefore, the disappearance of the basic package will still have an increasing effect on inflation until February 2025."
Household services, (+22.9%) and olive oil (20.5%) also rose in price, driving the increase. In contrast, mobile phone services, hotel rooms, foreign travel and city trips had a decreasing effect on the index.
Wages expected to rise
The smoothed health index stood at 131.18 points in January. "This exceeded the pivot index for civil services and social benefits, which is fixed at 130.67 points."
This figure is used to determine when employees will see their wages increase next year as part of Belgium's wage indexation system. If the pivot index is reached or exceeded, government benefits, pensions and wages will rise. Benefits and pensions will rise by 2% in February, and government wages by the same amount in March.
As part of the Federal Government negotiations, a change to this system is on the table. This could mean public servants will only receive the automatic wage indexation once a year, on 1 January.
CPI differs from the HICP figure – the EU's preferred inflation index – because each index is calculated using a different basket of consumer goods and services. In December, the HICP rate was 4.4%. With this figure, Belgium again landed in the top five EU countries when it comes to high inflation.
