While food prices have been rising in almost all eurozone countries, Lithuania has experienced the biggest increase. Food price inflation here started earlier than elsewhere and, an economist believes, they may start falling in Lithuania first.
Lina Neverbickienė, a Lithuanian who lives in Berlin, says that food prices are rising in Germany too. The main reason, she believes, is the war.
“They may not have doubled as in Lithuania, but for some products we can certainly say with confidence that prices have risen by a third,” Neverbickienė tells LRT TV.
According to the Berliner, she has to pay more for bread, meat, cottage cheese, yoghurt and pasta. But the price of chocolate or wine, for example, has not changed.
“Before, it was unthinkable to pay one euro for a litre of milk, but now it costs 1.20. Or a packet of butter now costs three euros instead of two,” she says. “But a packet in Germany is always 250 grams, not less, and the milk is always a litre, there is no such trickery as 0.9 or 0.85.”
Meanwhile in Lithuania, food packages have shrunk and a carton of milk now oftentimes contains just 0.9l.
Economist Žygimantas Mauricas of Luminor Bank says prices are rising in all countries of the European Union, with an annual increase of 17 percent. Lithuania has the fastest rate in the euro area, at 33 percent.
“Prices in Lithuania were rising even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Last February, prices in Lithuania were already rising at an annual rate of 15 per cent, which was very high, while the EU average at the time was only 5 percent,” he tells LRT TV.
Jūratė Cvilikienė of Swedbank says that prices in Lithuania have been rising rapidly due to the disruption of raw material supplies, changes in energy prices and wage growth.
“Another exceptional factor – and very typical for Lithuania – is the continued good mood of the population, the confidence index and the absolutely unchanging consumption habits,” she tells LRT TV. “Before the holidays, consumers in Germany and the US were not so optimistic and did not spend as much as Lithuanians did.”
According to Mauricas, it is possible that Lithuania will be the first of the euro area countries to see food prices begin to fall.
“This is a trend in the EU countries that food prices have already stopped rising and it is very likely that the prices of certain products will fall this year, perhaps the overall index at the end of this year will be lower than it was at the end of last year,” he says.
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