Inflation leaves no escape for workers and retirees, especially Sardinians. The prices of water, milk, bread, gasoline, and other basic goods have skyrocketed, while salaries (with contracts frozen for over a decade) and pensions (the latest increase was €4) are barely able to stem the price increases.

And poverty also affects health, because – in these scorching days – not everyone can afford the high costs of electricity for heat pumps or turn to doctors or private facilities for treatment.

Empty cart

This year, grocery shopping costs €1,824 more per year than in 2021. This is the figure emerging from the latest update from the national observatory of the Italian Consumer Center (CCI). The average monthly household spending increased from €480 in 2021 (ISTAT data) to €632 in June this year. This represents an increase of €152 per month, equivalent to €1,824 more per year (+32%).

Some examples of how much some products have increased on average in five years: fresh milk went from €1.60 to €2; rent for a two-room apartment went from €700 to €850; coffee went from €1.10 to €1.40; a 15-kg gas cylinder with delivery went from €35 to €40; pizza slices went from €2 to €2.50; bread went from €3.03 per kilo in 2021 to €4.99 in 2026, pasta from €1.34 to €2.19. Lemons went from €1.84 to €3, carrots from €1.27 to €2, and potatoes from €1.19 to €1.95. Meat prices also increased: chicken went from €4.22 to €7.60 per kilo; Chicken legs from €3.70 to €6.90; minced veal from €7.99 to €14.45 per kilo; cooked ham from €18.34 to €28 per kilo.

The paradox

"A bloodbath," Simone Girau, vice president of Adiconsum, gets to the point, speaking bluntly of "speculation." Then again, we Sardinians pay for being on an island. "Our insularity," Girau adds, "is a tax we pay more than the rest of Italy."

Andrea Artizzu

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