Hello everyone, i hope you are well! It's been sometime but these couple of weeks i was quite busy at work. Today i have spare time so what's better than creating a post here and sharing once again the chaos that have to deal with in Greece. Every day, something new happens but the sad reality is that nothing good is happening only bad, sad and things that can make you angry occur.
So we all like coffee and here in Greece people drink a lot of coffee. In fact it's quite a traditional drink but it has been evolved quite a lot as the years passed. Most people nowadays, when they go to work or if they are about to go out during the day will most likely will drink coffee. Thus, coffee is part of our everyday lives. Also, note that drinking coffee is quite different here in Greece than in other countries like Italy for example.
In Italy, people grab an espresso, drink it quickly and continue with their daily program. In Greece, it's quite different. We may go to a cafeteria with friends order a coffee and leave after 2-3 hours! We like to take our time and talk with each other. So in the past let's say 2-3 years the price of a single coffee has been increase a lot.
I won't be talking about takeaway coffee, instead, i will be talking about drinking coffee in a cafeteria instead. So around 2 years ago i remember paying around 3-3.20 euros. A couple of months ago the price skyrocketed to around 3.5-3.6 even to 4 euros. In some more touristy places you can even pay 5-8 euros but that's a talk for another time.
Now according to Eurostat we have the following:
In March 2024, the annual rate of change of the consumer price of coffee in the EU was +1.0%, compared with +13.5% in March 2023, and it approached the July 2021 level (+0.8%). The inflation rate for coffee has been declining since October 2022, when it was at its highest (+17.4%), following a steep increase that began in October 2021 (+2.0%).
Now based on that Greece was supposed to be ok, having no actual increase. The sad reality is that through too many excuses like still the war in Ukraine, the increase in coffee prices and such we get to pay more. Note that since 1st of July 2024 the government decided to increase the VAT from 13% to 24% on coffee. Today i went to drink a coffee at one of my usual places. From 3.6 euros i paid 3.9 euros.
To understand the level of hypocrisy and excuses, a close friend of mine is in Spain. He pays around 2-2.5 euros for the exact same coffee having no actual increase since last year. Apparently the "increase in coffee beans" as the government says, applies only to Greece or the reality is far from what they say. In general the prices are out of this world in Greece while the salaries are extremely low and people can't even live.
Imagine that when i visited Norway, a country where the average salary can be 3-6 times the Greek one, the prices in supermarkets were basically the same as in Greece, some products were even up to 20% lower while others up to 20% higher. Do the math based on the salaries and everyday life and you will see how difficult things are.
What's the case in your country?
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