No fruit, ham a luxury: Hungary food prices spike most in EU
Associated PressBUDAPEST, Hungary — Magdolna Gozon nibbles spicy green peppers from a fruit and vegetable stall at a sprawling indoor market in Budapest, sampling them to make sure they’re hot enough for a soup she’s cooking. The 83-year-old retiree can’t afford to buy more if they don’t have enough kick — not with her small pension and Hungary facing the biggest spike in food prices in the European Union. We’re almost to the point where sausage and ham are considered luxury food items,” said Szilvia Bukta, a manager at a butchery stall in Budapest’s historic Grand Market Hall. While most European economies are facing similar difficulties as Russia’s war in Ukraine fuels a cost-of-living crisis, inefficiencies in Hungary’s farming and food processing industries and a historic devaluation of the forint currency made the country’s “extreme inflation” worse than anywhere else in the EU, said Peter Virovacz, chief economist at ING Hungary. “Vegetables, especially in the winter period, and certain meats and meat products rose unbelievably.” It has sent Hungary’s overall inflation rate up to 25.6%, also the highest in the EU, whose average slowed to 8.3% last month.
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