Overview

• Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices were 30.1% higher in July 2025 than the 2019 average, according to Istat’s latest note.
• The 'shopping basket' index rose 3.5% year over year in August from 3.2% in July, widening its gap with the overall CPI to 1.9 percentage points from 0.2 points in March.
• Price gains since 2019 are steep for key staples, including butter (+60.1%), olive oil (+53.2%), rice (+52.0%) and coffee (+47.6%).
• Italy’s cumulative increase is below the EU27 average of +39.2% and below Germany (+40.3%) and Spain (+38.2%), while France is lower at +27.5%.
• Il Fatto reports food sales volumes have fallen about 6.5% since 2019 as households buy less and shift to cheaper outlets, with discount chains’ sales value up roughly 45.6%.