Harmonized Beer Report for European Nations for July 2024

By Danny Hogan, The Quinnipiac University Economics Research Team 

European Beer Index 

Source: FRED and own calculations. Rates indexed to be 100 at the start of the period. 

With July's beer price data now available, we observe a general leveling in prices over the past few months. Hungarian beer prices (yellow) continued to fall for the second consecutive month, still below March levels, down by about 0.5% since June. In contrast, the other countries are still experiencing price increases. The Czech Republic (green) saw prices nearly stabilize, with a marginal decrease of less than 0.1% following a peak in May. In Ireland (red), prices have remained steady, hovering around a 1% increase since March with minimal changes. Meanwhile, Germany’s prices rose by about 0.25% over the last month. Following a near 1% spike earlier in the year, Germany's harmonized index has fluctuated between a 0.5% and 1% increase.

Harmonized Beer Index Historic Trends 

Source: FRED and own calculations. The center line is a rolling three-month average. The upper and lower boundaries are the average plus and average minus one standard deviation, respectively, for the same time period. 

As indicated by the European Beer Index graph, beer prices have stabilized in relation to historical trends. All four nations have now seen their respective indices fall back within the range of +/- one standard deviation. While Germany's price rise was more short-lived, the other three nations—Hungary, Czechia, and Ireland—experienced sharp price increases earlier in the year that pushed their indices well above the upper bound. However, these spikes have since moderated, with prices returning to a more normalized range as the rate of increase slowed. Whether these current levels represent a new pricing equilibrium or if further adjustments are forthcoming will become clearer as the year progresses.