While Italians are compelled to pay 4.3% more in 2022 owing to energy crisis-related price hikes, the high costs have reduced the amount of food they buy by 3.8%. This is the conclusion reached by Coldiretti's research of ISTAT data for the first ten months of 2022 pertaining to the retail trade in October, which, compared to the previous month, saw a reduction in both the value and volume of sales for both food and non-food items. The difficulty of the situation is shown by the fact that low-cost food purchases are soaring at food discounters, whose sales have increased by +10.1% in the first ten months, the largest increase in history. The outcome of the discounters underlines the challenge faced by Italian families who, in response to price hikes, shift their spending to low-cost channels while sacrificing quality.
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