BRUSSELS, April 13 (Xinhua) -- For Keita Abdourahamane, a municipal employee in the Belgian capital Brussels, food prices have increased at least twofold in the last few weeks.
"I recently bought twice the price of a liter of oil than a few weeks ago," he told Xinhua. The same is true of the price of bread and other food products such as onions.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has so far claimed the lives of 31,000 people in Belgium, has hit the country's economy hard. And the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has made things even worse, pushing food and energy prices to heights not seen in years.
Augustin Fraioli, a college student in Brussels, told Xinhua that while his monthly heating and hot water bill used to be 200 euros (217 U.S. dollars), these days it is a whopping 700 or 800 euros.
Sun Ce, a Dutchman of Chinese origin who works in the food trade in Belgium, had a similar story to tell.
"Since July last year, the average price of my products has increased by more than 50 percent, especially in the past two months, and now it is expected to increase by 30 percent in the next three months. The problem is that I can't pass the cost burden on to my customers because everyone is struggling with the rising prices," he said.
According to Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, the country's inflation rate was 8.31 percent in March this year, hitting a 39-year high.
Although the Belgian government has used fiscal measures, including tax cuts and subsidies, and has also announced energy-saving initiatives, such as lowering the temperature of rooms by one degree Celsius or using microwave ovens to heat up and cook food, in the long run, according to analysts, the effect of such measures is rather limited.
According to a recent survey conducted by Fevia, the federation of the Belgian food industry, four out of ten of its companies are considering temporarily reducing or even suspending production in the coming weeks.
Another survey published on April 5 by life insurer NN on the financial wellbeing of Belgian consumers said 86 percent of them expect a new crisis to emerge.
"The optimism about the financial future at the end of the health crisis has therefore been completely eclipsed," Bart Chiau, professor of economics at the University of Ghent, was quoted in the Belgian media as saying. ■
