- Data, Statistics and AI for Well-Being of People and Organisations
- A cura di Luigi Fabbris, Alberto Franci, Pietro Renzi
The impact of inflation on food poverty: Evidence from Italy
- Ilaria Benedetti
- Livia Celardo
- © 2026 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1.14
Food poverty is a multidimensional condition characterized by insufficient economic resources to obtain enough nutritious food, that meets social and cultural standards. Access to food is strictly related to food prices; higher food prices can exacerbate food poverty, especially in urban areas, because food constitutes a large share of their expenses, and price increase reduces their purchasing power, leading to greater difficulty in affording food needs. This study examines the incidence of relative food poverty in Italy over the period 2021–2023 using data from the ISTAT Household Budget Survey (HBS). Traditional poverty indicators, based on a relative approach that compares household nominal expenditure, may fail to capture changes in actual living conditions – especially during periods of high inflation or rapid macroeconomic fluctuations. In such contexts, the distribution of nominal spending may remain stable or increase, while the purchasing power of lower-income households deteriorates. To better assess the real impact of inflation on household living conditions, this study adopts an alternative approach that focuses on the distribution of real food expenditure. Specifically, food spending is deflated using the Consumer Price Index (CPI), allowing for an evaluation of households’ capacity to afford food in constant price terms. The analysis is conducted at both national and regional levels. Results show a marked increase in the incidence of food poverty when using real expenditure data compared to the conventional approach. This finding suggests that, even when nominal poverty rates remain stable, the erosion of purchasing power due to inflation may be placing a larger share of the population at risk of inadequate access to food. The study underscores the importance of complementing traditional poverty measures with inflation-adjusted indicators to inform social policy and ensure that the evolving cost of living is adequately reflected in poverty assessments and equity-focused interventions.
- Keywords:
- Food poverty,
- Inflation,
- Expenditure,
University of Tuscia, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0003-3233-8543
ISTAT, Italian National Institute of Statistics, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-4201-4916
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Informazioni sul capitolo
Titolo del capitolo
The impact of inflation on food poverty: Evidence from Italy
Autori
Ilaria Benedetti, Livia Celardo
Lingua
Inglese
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1.14
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Informazioni bibliografiche
Titolo del libro
Data, Statistics and AI for Well-Being of People and Organisations
Curatori
Luigi Fabbris, Alberto Franci, Pietro Renzi
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
420
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1
ISBN Print
979-12-215-1061-4
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-1062-1
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-1063-8
Collana
Applied Statistics Series