We spend more but consume less and, even, under the weight of inflation and high bills you also get to save on food. This is what is happening to Italian families forced in some way to deal with all the effects of the recent economic crisis. A crisis that seems to have helped to hit hard, among others, even on the pockets of civil servants whose purchasing power has decreased by 7 points in the last 10 years.
It was today that outlined the contours of a situation that arouses a general wave of concern Istat which released the latest data on retail sales, i.e. those of the month of November. In practice, compared to October, sales increased slightly both in value and in volume (respectively by 0.8% and 0.4%) but on a trend level, against an increase of 4.4% in value there is however, there was a drop in volumes of 3.6%. A negative figure, the latter, mainly caused by the collapse of 6.3% in the volumes of food sold.
According to Unc consumers, the increase in sales is only an optical effect that depends on inflation and the collapse in food sales volumes demonstrates that Italians are “on a forced diet”. Assoutenti goes so far as to reckon on the effects on household budgets: in the light of the latest Istat surveys, food expenditure is reduced by 355 euros per year for the “typical” family and 484 euros for a household with two children, if the inflation effect is not considered.
The Codacons calculations show instead that net of the cost of living, retail sales declined in November in volume by 3.6%, equivalent to a lower expenditure of 1,053 euros per year per family, -27.1 billion euros considering all families residing in Italy. In short, by all accounts, it is “a very dangerous situation unfortunately destined to worsen in the coming weeks, when the effects of the high price of petrol and the rise in excise taxes on fuel will make themselves felt on retail prices.
Also generalized the concern raised by traders thinking above all of the fate of small shops, which in the month of November alone lost sales volumes for a total of 6% compared to a year earlier (compared to a +1% recorded instead by large-scale retailers). Confesercenti therefore hopes that the Government will continue decisively on the path of support to families and businesses, starting with fiscal measures, since it believes that protecting domestic demand is a priority for the stability of the economy in this delicate phase.
Confcommercio observes how the income losses and the erosion of accumulated savings generated by inflation have forced families to selective behaviors towards consumption. Evidence, this, also confirmed by the analysis of Coldiretti according to which the situation of difficulty is evident given that the purchases of low cost food are flying with the food discount stores which mark a leap of 10.3% in sales in value. A result which, the organization specifies, highlights the difficulty in which Italian families find themselves, who spent almost 13 billion more to buy food and drink in 2022. Among the product categories that weighed the most on the increases in the cart there are vegetables that precede bread, pasta and rice on the podium and then meat and cured meats.
Among the categories particularly affected are civil servants whose wages, according to the Aran report, grew by 6.7% between 2013 and the end of September 2022 against a 13.8% increase in prices in the same period and growth in private wages, excluding executives, of 11.6%.
