Latest news with #Eurostat
Agriland
a day ago
- Business
- Agriland
CSO: Food prices increase by 4% in past year
Food prices are estimated to have risen by more than 4% since last year according to the latest data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (Friday, May 30). The EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for Ireland is estimated to have risen by 1.4% in the 12 months to May 2025 and remained unchanged since April 2025. This compares with HICP inflation of 2% in Ireland in the 12 months to April 2025 and an annual increase of 2.2% in the HICP for the eurozone in the same period. Looking at the components of the flash HICP for Ireland in May 2025, food prices are estimated to have increased by 1% in the last month and by +4.1% in the last 12 months. Energy prices are estimated to have fallen by 1.3% in the month and decreased by 2.6% over the 12 months to May 2025. The HICP, excluding energy and unprocessed food, is estimated to have gone up by 1.8% since May 2024. Eurostat will publish flash estimates of inflation from the EU HICP for the eurozone for May 2025 on June 3, 2025. Commenting on the data published today, statistician in the CSO Prices Division, Anthony Dawson said: 'The latest flash estimate of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), compiled by the CSO, indicates that prices for consumer goods and services in Ireland are estimated to have increased by 1.4% in the past year. 'Looking at the components of the flash HICP in Ireland for May 2025, energy prices are estimated to have decreased by 1.3% in the month and fallen by 2.6% since May 2024. 'The HICP, excluding energy and unprocessed food prices, is estimated to have risen by 1.8% since May 2024. 'Food prices are estimated to have grown by 1% in the last month and increased by 4.1% in the last 12 months. Transport costs have fallen by 3% in the month and decreased by 2.4% in the 12 months to May 2025,' he added. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the official measure of inflation for Ireland and is published monthly by the CSO. The CPI release for May 2025 will be published on June 12, 2025 and the final results of the HICP for Ireland for May 2025 will be published as part of the CPI release. The HICP is an index of consumer prices that has been harmonised to allow comparisons across eurozone countries. The CSO compiles the HICP flash estimates and final results for Ireland and submit those to Eurostat which then compiles the eurozone estimate and publishes that along with the results for the countries within the eurozone.
Euronews
a day ago
- Business
- Euronews
Working week: Where in Europe people clock the most and least hours?
The EU motto "United in Diversity" couldn't be truer for the average working hours across the bloc. The latest Eurostat dataset illustrates a very large spectrum of how much time employees spend grinding through a full-time working week. On paper, the Greeks slog the most. Workers there put in an average of nearly 40 hours (39.8), the highest in the EU. Bulgaria, Poland and Romania follow next with around 39 hours a week. But beyond the EU, the workweek stretches even further, 43 hours in Turkey and 41 in Serbia. The report also shows EU citizens work slightly less compared to ten years ago. The average across the bloc is now 36 hours, down from 37 in 2014. Data also shows which sectors work the most and the least. Agriculture workers tend to have the longest weeks: 41 hours, followed by mining and construction workers at nearly 39. At the other end of the spectrum, education workers have the shortest week with almost 32 hours, followed by arts employees at 32.9 and social workers at 33.4. Four-day working weeks have been trialled across Europe with mixed results and feedback. Companies took part in pilots and tests in countries like the UK, Germany, Portugal, Iceland, France and Spain. In any case, no European country has officially mandated a four-day work week with reduced hours across all working sectors. Belgium was the first European country to enshrine the shorter week into law, in 2022. However, although employees can choose to work four days instead of five, they still need to work the same number of hours.
RTÉ News
a day ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
Inflation eases to 1.4% in May, flash CSO estimate shows
Consumer prices eased to 1.4% year-on-year in May from 2% a month earlier, a flash estimate of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices from the Central Statistics Office estimates today. The CSO said that core Irish HICP, which excludes energy and unprocessed food, slowed to 1.8%, from 2.5% in April. Today's figures show that energy prices are estimated to have fallen by 1.3% in the month and decreased by 2.6% over the 12 months to May. But food prices are estimated to have increased by 1% on a monthly basis and by 4.1% on an annual basis, while transport costs are down 3% in the month and 2.4% lower in the 12 months to May. Eurostat will publish flash estimates of inflation for the euro zone for May on June 3. Meanwhile, Spanish inflation also dipped below the European Central Bank's 2% target in May, preliminary data showed today, boosting the case for more interest rate cuts in the euro zone.
Local Italy
a day ago
- Politics
- Local Italy
FACT CHECK: Does Italy grant more citizenships than any other EU country?
As Italy prepares to vote on June 8-9th in a referendum on easing rules on applying for citizenship through naturalisation, or residency, the main argument against the proposal remains that it would make things too 'easy' for applicants. The strongest opposition to changing the rules comes from the government itself, with senior ministers of the ruling hard-right parties calling for supporters to abstain from voting, and insisting that making it easier for long-term residents to become Italian nationals would be 'dangerous'. According to Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant League party, cutting the wait time to apply from ten years down to five would mean "indiscriminately extending" the granting of citizenship. Italy is already 'the first European country in terms of granting citizenship every year,' he claimed at a press conference on May 19th. But data shows us that this is not strictly true, particularly when it comes to applications via the residency route. Italy has three main routes for citizenship applications: ancestry, residency, and marriage. Ancestry has long been the most commonly-taken route, followed by residency. According to the most recent statistics available from Eurostat, in 2023 Italy granted citizenship to some 214,000 residents. Spain meanwhile approved 240,000 requests from residents in the same year. In 2022, Italy was actually the European country with the highest number of applications for citizenship via residency granted, while in 2021 it ranked fourth, behind Spain, France and Germany. The above graph shows the rate of annual citizenship applications granted by Spain (in green) compared to Italy (in pink). Source: Eurostat The overall comparison shows that, between 2014 and 2023, Italy ranked first in the EU for citizenship for five years out of ten, not 'every year,' as Salvini claims. Going further back, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Italy granted citizenship at a much lower rate. And when we look at the numbers of new citizens via residency in each country as a percentage of the population, Italy drops further down the rankings. For example, in 2023 Italy granted citizenship to 3.6 foreign nationals per thousand residents, the fifth highest number behind Luxembourg, Sweden, Spain and Belgium. If the referendum passes, estimates suggest some 1.4 million people would be immediately eligible to apply for citizenship. However, the rules on eligibility would otherwise remain unchanged, meaning this would be unlikely to increase the number of applicants in the long term. And Italy is already set to see a sharp decline in the total number of applications for citizenship filed and granted in future. By far the largest proportion of all new Italian citizenship applications are made via ancestry, often by descendants of Italians who moved abroad several generations ago. But at the end of March 2023, the number of people eligible to apply via ancestry was slashed dramatically in reforms pushed through by the government.
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Irish inflation remains steady in May at 1.4%
Irish inflation remained steady in May and was unchanged compared to the previous month. New figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Friday found that the EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) rose by 1.4% in the 12 months to May 2025. This compares with an inflation figure of 2% in the 12 months to April and an annual increase of 2.2% in the HICP for the Eurozone in the same period. Looking at the components of the flash HICP for Ireland in May 2025, energy prices are estimated to have fallen by 1.3% in the month and decreased by 2.6% over the 12 months to May 2025. Meanwhile, food prices are estimated to have increased by 1% in the last month and by 4.1% in the previous 12 months. The HICP excluding energy and unprocessed food is estimated to have risen by 1.8% since May 2024. The consumer price index (CPI) is the official measure of inflation in Ireland, while the HICP is an index of consumer prices that has been harmonised to allow for comparisons across euro area countries. While the CPI includes mortgage rates in its basket of goods, the HICP does not. Eurostat will publish flash estimates of inflation from the EU HICP for the Eurozone for May 2025 on 03 June 2025. It comes as economists warn the ECB to avoid delays in its easing of monetary policy. The bank will lower interest rates twice more, according to a Bloomberg survey, but respondents warned it shouldn't wait too long between those moves or investors will conclude that its easing campaign is already over. Respondents predict quarter-point reductions on June 5 and at September's meeting, when new quarterly forecasts should shed more light on the effects of US President Donald Trump's reordering of global trade. That would bring the deposit rate to 1.75%, where the poll sees it settling through the end of 2026.
