Economy

The Easter “stinger” arrives, but Italians do not give up on expenses and holidays

The Easter Sting is ready. This year Italians will spend an extra billion on food, hotels, travel, museums and restaurants. To celebrate the expense will be 2.2 billion, with increases from 4% to 13% and peaks reaching even over 46%. Translated, it means that each family on average will spend at least 36 euros more than last year to celebrate at the table (Assoutenti data).

Everything costs more. Let's start with the expense. In general, for the Easter and Easter Monday table, even with inflation settled at 0.8%, 4% more will be spent compared to 2023. Cured meats mark +3.8%, olive oil +46.2% , fresh fruit +11.1%. Not to mention the must-have dessert: the Easter man. Here, thanks to the cocoa crisis (we reported it here https://www.panorama.it/economia/caro-price-cacao-uova-pasqua), the average increases are 24%, after +15.4% already registered last year. Then there are eggs that have almost doubled in 365 days, reaching +40%. Those specifically designed for children, linked to cartoons, TV series and famous characters, increased by 16.7% (Codacons). Considering that production in Italy is around 31 thousand tons, Italians will spend 72 million euros more. However, the doves seem to be sheltered at the moment with prices in line with 2023. If you decide to have lunch at the restaurant, the expense is 4% more than last Easter.

Having archived the food chapter, the bad news continues with travel where the estimate is 700 million euros more than in 2023. By choosing the plane you have to take into account a +13.1% for national flights, a +5, 7% to reach European destinations and +8.7% for all-inclusive holiday package prices. Train alternative? Nothing to do, here the tickets have grown in the last month by 6% and by 20% for the economical high-speed fare. Once you arrive there is the hotel surprise, with an increase of almost 7% and 9% for Bed and Breakfasts, holiday homes and apartments. To visit museums and monuments the burden on the wallet increases by 3.9%.

Added to all this is the sword of Damocles: petrol and diesel are already increasing. According to the latest calculation by Quotidiano Energia, the price of petrol served is close to 2 euros again in recent days. The fear is that speculation will be repeated like last year when, for the Easter holidays, the increase in supplies was 6% compared to 2022.

L'inflation in the last two years (2021-2023) it has spent 4 thousand euros on more at Italian families (Cgia estimate Of Mestre). Every increase in prices was explained like this. But now that the price surge seems to have passed or at least stemmed, the “traditional” blow arrives promptly on the eve of a holiday, party or long weekend. And for Easter 2024 nothing will be exempt.