Since the pandemic began, the climb in everyday costs has kept moving. Families across the region have felt the squeeze as grocery bills rise faster than paychecks, with each salary bump seeming to vanish at the checkout.
And the scale of the impact isn’t small. Projections for this year show that four years of inflation could push many Valencian households to increase their annual food budget by about 1,200 euros. These figures come from technicians who study how inflation reshapes household finances through PatecoBody, a research initiative under the Council of Chambers of Commerce.
Overall, the data indicate that rising prices across sectors, including fuel and electricity, compelled the typical family to spend up to 1,700 euros more to buy the same goods and services in 2022 compared with the year before. About one third of that uptick, around 525 euros, originated from higher costs for food and beverages.
In this context, expenses for this category reached around 5,089 euros per household, accounting for roughly 17.1% of disposable income. This marks a three-point rise in how much of the family budget goes to food since 2019, before the pandemic and subsequent events pushed prices higher.
To illustrate the scope, researchers tracked the changes of 674 items listed in the Department of Agriculture’s Food Consumption Panel and validated up to the present. In eight out of ten items surveyed, prices for food and beverages rose, with some increases surpassing 40%, as seen in staples like flour.
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Looking deeper, the impact extends beyond groceries. For the current year, Pateco’s calculations project that the average shopping cart will require an additional 304 euros, based on inflation forecasts from major working groups that anticipate further food price rises around 8.7%. Some scenarios include a VAT reduction on certain staples. When previous increases from late 2020 and 2021 are included, the total climbs to about 1,247 euros.
Vulnerable families
Inflation touches everyone, but the study highlights that households with lower incomes bear the biggest burden as food costs take up a larger share of budgets. For example, families relying on subsidies or unemployment benefits spend more of their earnings on food than the average family would suggest. Retirees also feel the squeeze because food costs consume a larger portion of their total income.
The report notes that food remains a non-deferrable expense alongside housing and health. As a result, families already dedicating a larger slice of their earnings to groceries have less room to trim other spending in response to rising food costs.
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On this basis, the study concludes that the rise in the shopping cart has had a pronounced effect for about a year. Roughly 23.6% of households in the autonomous community — about 480,000 people — live in poverty or are at risk of poverty.
The final section of the report examines the impact of the Shopping Cart Bonus introduced by the Generalitat, a 90-euro card aimed at core products. Estimates suggest the bonus will offset about 9.1% of food inflation in 2023.
More changes in electricity and gas providers
Rising prices have driven a notable uptick in people switching electricity or gas suppliers to control fixed household expenses. In electricity, as many as 14.5% of customers changed contracts last year, five points more than two years ago. In other words, supplier changes rose by 51%. For gas, 11.2% of consumers changed operators, a 61% increase from 2020, according to the latest data from the National Markets and Competition Commission. About one in five people find the process challenging.