May 3, 2024

Consumer price index of April 2024 in Belgium

  • Inflation went up from 3.18% to 3.37% in April.
  • The consumer price index this month decreases by 0.63 points or 0.48%.
  • Inflation based on the health index has increased from 3.09% to 3.28%.
  • The smoothed health index stands at 128.32 points in April. The central index for public service and social benefits, set at 128.11 points, was therefore exceeded.
  • Inflation for food products (including alcoholic beverages) has decreased for the 13th month in a row and stands at 0.25% this month, compared to 3.21% in March. The contribution of food products to inflation currently amounts to 0.06 percentage points.
  • Core inflation, which does not take into account price evolutions of energy products and unprocessed food, has decreased for the 11th month in a row and stands at 3.26% in April, compared to 3.85% in March.
  • The most significant price increases in April concerned motor fuels, hotel rooms and restaurants and cafés. However, dairy products, fruit, meat, bread and cereals, clothes, travels abroad and city trips, electricity, fish and seafood, products for pets and holiday villages had a decreasing effect on the index.

Inflation stands at 3.37% in April compared to 3.18% in March and 3.20% in February. Inflation based on the health index amounts to 3.28% this month compared to 3.09% in March and 3.22% in February. Inflation without energy has decreased to 2.87% from 3.86% in March and 5.04% in February. Core inflation, which does not take into account price evolutions of energy products and unprocessed food, was running at 3.26% in April, compared to 3.85% in March and 4.25% in February.

Comment on inflation

With regard to energy, we have seen for the first time since March 2023 a positive inflation. It now stands at 9.19%, compared to -1.61% last month and -5.34% in February. For electricity, inflation is currently at 1.9% compared to -14.9% last month. For natural gas, it went from 29.0% last month to 87.5% this month. Compared to the previous month, prices for natural gas decreased by 2.3% and those for electricity by 2.4%. The increase in inflation in recent months is the result of the extinction of the impact of the basic package for electricity and natural gas. In March, the last effect of the basic package disappeared from the index. The disappearance of the basic package will have an increasing effect on inflation until March 2025. Prices for domestic heating oil, calculated based on a smoothed 12-month moving average, have declined by 6.1% over a year. Motor fuels cost 3.4% more than in April last year and increased by 3.2% this month compared to the previous month.

Inflation for services has declined to 4.93% from 5.04%. Inflation for rents has edged down to 5.43% from 5.62%. Inflation for food products (including alcoholic beverages) stands at 0.25% this month, compared to 3.21% last month. This inflation has increased sharply since early 2022 and reached a peak at 17.02% in March 2023. Since then, it has gradually decreased to the level of 0.25% in April 2024.

Energy inflation goes from -1.61% in March to 9.19% in April and accounts for 0.77 percentage points to total inflation. Food, with an inflation rate of 0.25%, accounts for 0.06 percentage points.

The price of natural gas has decreased by 2.3% in April compared to the previous month. Prices for electricity have gone down by 2.4% on average this month.

Source: STATBEL
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