Coldiretti – TUSCANY

Inflation nosedive in Tuscany and cheaper spending for families. In the first five months of the year, Tuscans saved on average 206 euros compared to the same period last year when, due to the increases in prices of bread, pasta, milk, fruit, oil and consumer products in general, filling the cart cost 551 euros per month against the current 510 euros. A saving which, converted into cash, is around 41 euros per month. It is the effect of the constant cooling of the consumer price index for food and non-alcoholic drinks, which has never been so low for 29 months. In May 2023, inflation fell to 2.5% (a year ago it was 11.2%) so much so that to find a lower index you have to go back to January 2022, almost a month before the invasion of Ukraine. This is what Coldiretti Toscana says on the basis of the analysis of Istat data on the consumer price index for the entire community calculated on the average monthly expenditure.

“The blessings of the collapse in inflation – explains Letizia Cesani, President of Coldiretti Tuscany – translate into greater spending capacity and a revival of consumption, which at the moment is still slow to consolidate, after one in two families was forced to given up, in the face of soaring prices and speculation, on meat, sweets, alcohol and cured meats as well as many superfluous expenses such as travel and going out. These have been very tough months for families in our region. In two years, considering 2022 and 2023, each household had to shell out just over a thousand euros to meet normal food needs. An effort that has destabilized their domestic economies already tested by the Covid period, leading them to change habits and strive to reduce any waste and superfluous expenditure to a minimum – explains the president of Coldiretti Toscana – The measures implemented at international and national level to reverse the trend are proving to work by bringing the index back below the warning level. Now we are waiting for consumption to recover.”

However, the speed of the curve does not go at the same speed for all regional territories with even substantial differences between one and the other. The decline in inflation was more marked in the province of Siena, where the index in March 2022 had reached the regional record (+16.8%), with a saving of 304 euros in the first five months of the year (-61 euros per month).

Just below we find Grosseto where today each family can save 288 euros compared to the previous year and Massa Carrara (-245 euros). Followed by all the others: Livorno (-225 euros), Pisa (-209 euros), Lucca (-195 euros), Arezzo (-185 euros), Florence (-169 euros) and finally Pistoia (-165 euros).

The savings map at the table

Siena – 304 euros

Grosseto – 288 euros

Massa Carrara – 245

Livorno – 225 euros

Pisa – 209 euros

Lucca – 195 euros

Arezzo – 185 euros

Florence – 169 euros

Pistoia – 165 euros

Source: Coldiretti processing of Istat data