2024 Price Increases: How to Navigate the Rising Costs of Everyday Expenses

It will be a 2024 characterized by price increases? Here are the ones to avoid. The map of increases consumer associations have drawn it up. They act as a driving force bills, thanks to the end of the protected market. But also pay attention to food, restaurant dinners, transport, the cost of water, communications and household products. The bill? It could reach 974 euros more per family, Codacons estimated. Federconsumatori, on the other hand, sees a blow of a thousand euros coming on average per year (1,011 euros per family, to be precise). From food to car insurance, through banks and telephone services, families will have to dig into their wallets and face increases which, in some cases, could be particularly substantial, explains Codacons. We start with food and drinks, which have been showing a strong upward trend for two years and which will continue, albeit at a slower rate, during 2024, resulting in greater spending estimated at +231 euros per family. For the transport sector (cars, trains, planes), already characterized in 2023 by the phenomena of expensive petrol and expensive flights, an average family could find itself spending 160 euros more per year.

Gas bills, what changes with the end of the protected market: how to choose the supplier and the best offers

Another sore point: theRc car. A household that has two cars will find itself spending a total of 62 euros more than in 2023, just for insurance coverage, Codacons estimates. And then. If there is a clear sky on the horizon for mortgages now that the policy of rate increases imposed by the ECB seems to be over (with the consequence that no new installment increases may be triggered during 2024), the same cannot be said for the sector of energy. In fact, the end of the protected gas and electricity market will lead, warns Codacons, to increases in tariffs: the increased expense could amount to +220 euros per year per household. Federconsumatori agrees: «the 2024 price increases are driven, once again, by the increase in the prices of energy goods, which continue to grow, especially driven by gas, also in light of the elimination of the discount on VAT and charges of the system, as well as due to the transition to the free market, where the tariffs are on average more expensive than those guaranteed up to now on the protected market”. For Federconsumatori it is important to implement a remodulation of VAT rates on consumer goods, accompanying it with sanctioning control measures.

THE PASSAGE
“This would allow families to save over 531.57 euros per year,” says Michele Carrus, president of Federconsumatori. The association also sees the Tari increasing by around 26 euros on average in 2024. For school canteens and books you will spend 12 euros more per year. For healthcare services 32 euros more. The greatest increases will concern, also for Federconsumatori, the shopping cart and bills, which together will require an additional outlay of more than 500 euros in 2024. On tariff adjustments in the telephony sector, with several operators having already announced increases for the new year, the loudest cry of alarm is that of Assoutenti. «Only for the increases already communicated by the managers, the increased expenditure could reach +60 euros per year per user, depending on the offer signed», states the president of the association Gabriele Melluso. Which he adds. «By adding the tariff adjustments linked to inflation, for an amount between +27 and +30 euros per year per family, we arrive at a blow that could reach the overall figure of 770 million euros in 2024». Recycling will also cost more.

The reduction of the CAC for wooden packaging, announced by Conai, will be effective from January 1st, from 8 euros per tonne to 7 euros per tonne. The increases for aluminium, paper and plastic will come into effect from 1 April 2024. The contribution for aluminum packaging will go from 7 euros/tonne to 12 euros/tonne. The basic contribution for paper packaging from 35 euros/tonne to 65 euros/tonne, a huge increase after the reduction to 5 euros/tonne, in force from June 2022 to October 2023, with the boom in waste paper values. Meanwhile, and at least this is excellent news, inflation continues to decline. For the pockets of Italians, 2024 could be the year of return to normality. In November 2023, inflation recorded an increase of 0.7% on an annual basis, from +1.7% in the previous month. This emerged from the latest Istat surveys. The inflation acquired for 2023 is equal to +5.7% for the general index and +5.1% for the underlying component.

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on Il Messaggero
2024-01-01 21:07:32
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