2023-06-23 10:14:29
Faced with the increase in prices and in particular of foodstuffs, discontent is rising among Italian buyers. In the form of a protest, a consumer association has launched an unprecedented initiative: proclaiming the pasta strike for a week.
Inflation has cost an average of 915 euros per family over the past year in Italy. “I believe that if the purchasing power from wages does not increase in direct proportion to the prices of products in the supermarkets, this will create new poor people who cannot survive,” explains Maria Rosa, a town hall employee.
In order to protest once morest the rising cost of food, some consumers are therefore supporting the original and symbolic principle of the pasta strike. In view of the situation, Maria Rosa, considers “that it is right to do this type of mobilization”.
Lower inflation
Maddalena also supports the pasta strike and “tries to join” in protest once morest the price increase. “Eight months ago, inflation was very high. At the moment it has fallen a little, but it is impossible not to realize it”, explains the Italian.
After rising slightly in April, inflation actually resumed its decline in May. The inflation rate in the euro zone had reached a record in October 2022, at 10.6%, following a year and a half of uninterrupted rise, accelerated by the war in Ukraine.
The main contribution to inflation still comes from food prices, which soared once more in May by 12.5% over one year in the euro zone, still recording a further slowdown compared to April (13.5 %).
>> Read once more: Growth slows in the 3rd quarter in the euro zone, record inflation
According to the Bank of Italy, household consumption, which had fallen at the end of 2022, should once more “increase moderately” this year, under the effect of the slowdown in inflation.
Consumer price inflation should come out at 6.1% before returning to levels close to the European Central Bank’s targets, at 2.3% in 2024 and 2.0% the following year as prices decline Energy.
Pasta consumption
Despite this drop in inflation, it remains difficult for some Italian consumers to make ends meet, hence the pasta strike. The mobilization, which began on Thursday, however, seems to have been little followed.
Maurizio, an employee of a Roman supermarket, ensures that he has not seen a drop in pasta sales. “We always have the same level of sales, at least in this outlet,” he explains.
It is still too early to comment on the success of the experiment, which will end on June 30. But if the movement does not actually arouse the expected enthusiasm, it will not necessarily be by ideological opposition to the strike.
According to Paola, a young student, it is indeed culturally difficult for the Italian population to do without pasta. “As an Italian, I think it’s hard not to have pasta, because we eat a lot of it,” she explains. She believes that not buying it is “doable”, “but the problem is not eating it”. Italian consumers would therefore not be opposed to a strike, but not necessarily that of spaghetti.
Radio subject: Eric Jozsef
Web adaptation: Emilie Délétroz with afp
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