Vienna: Inflation rates in Austria recorded a significant increase in July, reaching 3.5 percent year-on-year, according to official data published today by Statistics Austria.
The figure was the highest since April 2024. The agency said that rising household energy, food, and service prices, particularly in the restaurant sector, were the main drivers of this increase.
Data showed that lunch prices rose by 7.7 percent over the year, while restaurant service prices increased by 5.6 percent, surpassing the general inflation rate.
Since 2020, restaurant prices have seen a total increase of more than 42 percent, compared with an average overall inflation rate of 28 percent, with a particularly sharp rise of 57 percent in the prices of vegetarian dishes.
Representatives of the hospitality sector attributed these increases to rising labor, energy, and raw material costs, coupled with a shift in consumer habits toward more cautious spending.
At the European level, restaurant price increases in Austria outpaced those in Germany (3.4 percent) and the eurozone as a whole (3.8 percent), negatively affecting the country’s competitiveness as a tourist destination.