Belgium Inflation: Annual Rate Rises to 5.26% in October, Highest Since April 2023 as Energy Prices Jump 33%
Belgium's annual inflation rate rose to 5.26% in October from 4.69% in September, the highest level since April 2023, the national statistics office Statbel reported on October 29. Energy prices, up 33.22% from a year earlier, were the main driver, accelerating from 24.37% in September and 16.47% in August.
Year on year, electricity prices rose 23.7%, heating oil 30.8%, natural gas 52.5% and motor fuels 34.4%. Month on month, natural gas rose 11.3%, electricity 8.5% and heating oil 8.3%, while private rents increased 1.5%, higher education tuition 20.7%, clothing 2.1%, airfares 7.2% and holiday villages and campsites 4.2%. Package holidays, down 5.1%, and hotels, down 7.4%, pulled the index in the opposite direction.
Core inflation, which excludes energy and unprocessed food, eased to 2.8% in October from 3.0% in September. Prices of external storage devices jumped 48.7% year on year amid surging global demand and shortages of hard drives and memory cards.
The Belgian news agency Belga linked the energy surge to the war in the Middle East.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 比利时布鲁塞尔大广场行会建筑（资料图）。The guildhalls of the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium (file photo). CC0 1.0，Julian Lupyan摄，经Wikimedia Commons / photo by Julian Lupyan, via Wikimedia Commons.
