By the end of 2023, European shoppers could breathe a small sigh of relief after inflation slowed faster than many economists had expected. This was a welcome respite from the stomach-churning 10.6% rate recorded at the height of the region’s energy crisis in October 2022.
Nevertheless, cost of living pressures are still being felt by many families across Europe. Interest rate rises have caused European economies to slow down, with eurozone countries seeing output decrease by 0.1% in the period of July to September.
