2025 was the year of record increases for some consumer products, while other goods recorded a very strong reduction in price lists. An investigation by the CCR, the Center for Training and Research on Consumption, analyzed what happened in the basket.
Record increases for jewelery and coffee
The primacy goes to jewellery, whose prices rose on average by +22% with the skyrocketing of gold prices, the safe haven par excellence in the face of geopolitical uncertainty, followed by coffee, which rose by +20.7% on the year at retail and electricity on the protected market, with tariffs that rose by an average of +20.2% on 2024, even if in the latter case the tariffs on the free market fell by 7.1%. This is followed by cocoa powder (+19.5%), which like coffee is affected by climate change and the crisis of raw materials, national flights (+16.3%), butter (+13%), chocolate (+10.9%), recreational and sports services (+9.8%), other citrus fruits (+9.4%), national holiday packages (+9.4%).
Prices of smartphones and oil are falling
But if some products record record price increases, others will see a sharp reduction in prices in 2025, such as cell phones and smartphones, which cost 14.7% less than the previous year. Even olive oil, after the increases in recent years, cost significantly less, on average -14.5% in 2024. For laptops, PDAs and tablets, prices fell on average by -13.6%, -9.6% for sugar, -9.2% for household cleaning appliances, -8.1% for televisions and devices for receiving, recording and reproducing images and sounds. “The 2025 inflation data highlight a real swing in prices, which is influenced by various factors – explains the president of the scientific committee of the Crc, Furio Truzzi – In addition to the prices of raw materials which have literally skyrocketed in recent years due to climate change and production cuts, in the last year there have been growing geopolitical tensions which have influenced the retail prices charged in our country. This is associated with speculative phenomena, such as increases in the transport and tourism sectors, where tariffs vary depending on demand from customers. consumers, resulting in completely unjustified price increases”.