Food prices in Sweden surged over 20 per cent for the past 12 months, registering the highest increase in over seven decades, according to official data.

Statistics Sweden said on Wednesday that food and non-alcoholic beverages became 20.95 per cent more expensive between February 2022 and February 2023, compared with the same period of the previous 12 months, reports Xinhua news agency.

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This is the biggest annual increase of food prices in Sweden since the beginning of the 1950s, it said.

“During the 1970s and 80s, food prices also increased a lot, but not as quickly as they do now. We have to go back to 1951 to find the most recent 12-month period when food prices increased by over 20 per cent,” said John Eliasson, price statistician at Statistics Sweden.

Food prices increased broadly, with butter, eggs and dairy products rising by more than 30 per cent in the past 12 months.

Prices of vegetables surged even higher, with leeks and cauliflower rising by almost 80 per cent.

Month-on-month, the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 2.74 per cent in February compared to January.

“It is worrying,” said Alexander Noren, Swedish Television’s economic commentator, adding that if the trend continues, it would be difficult to tame such inflation.

The overall inflation in Sweden remains high for the past few months.

The data from Statistics Sweden also showed that the country’s inflation rate hit a 31-year record high of 12.3 per cent in December 2022.

After a slight fall to 11.7 per cent in January this year, it increased again to 12 per cent in February.