Price index, holidays and petrol: what affected inflation in April?

According to the latest STATEC analysis, Luxembourg's consumer price index rose by 0.6% in April 2025 compared to March. The reason is seasonal fluctuations related to Easter and price increases in the tourism sector: plane tickets rose by almost 39%, tour packages by 16.4% and hotels by 2.9%. Against the background of this increase in prices, a decrease in fuel prices was recorded, including diesel (-4.1%) and fuel oil (-6.7%), which, however, did not affect the overall growth of inflation.

Prices for services rose by 1.1 per cent month-on-month and 2.3 per cent year-on-year. The increase was observed, in particular, in the sectors of housing rental and online advertising. Interestingly, services of childcare centres (nurseries, full-day schools) fell in price by 3.8%.

The grocery basket again showed growth - +0.5% over the month, mainly due to fruit (+2.0%), coffee (+3.0%), pork (+3.6%) and deli meats. Meanwhile, oil (-3.4%), pasta (-2.3%) and rice (-1.2%) became slightly cheaper. Over the year, food in general rose in price by 1.7%.

In the alcohol and tobacco section, too, there was a divergence: cigarette prices rose by 3% for the month and 13.1% for the year, while wine became cheaper.

The rise in the average half-yearly cost of living has triggered another tranche indiciaire, the automatic indexation mechanism. From 1 May 2025, all salaries, pensions and state benefits were increased by 2.5% as the cost of living index exceeded the established threshold of 1013.46 points (reaching 1015.30).

Thus, since April, the general price level index has reached 124.90 points (in the 2015 base), and inflation excluding volatile factors (so-called "cut-off inflation") rose to 2.1 per cent.