The cost of store-bought pizza and quiche in the European Union grew in December by 16 per cent from a year earlier, the bloc's statistics agency Eurostat said on Wednesday.
As food lovers in the US prepare to celebrate National Pizza Day on Feb 9, EU consumers will have to search deeper in their pockets to enjoy a slice of Italy's most renowned fast food.
However, the pizza inflation rate varied wildly across the EU, with Hungary topping the Eurostat chart with a 46 per cent yearly price increase, followed by Lithuania and Bulgaria on 39 per cent and 37 per cent respectively.
The smallest price hikes in pizza and quiche, lumped together in Eurostat's novel indicator, were recorded in Luxembourg (+7 per cent), Italy (+10 per cent) and France (+13 per cent).
Overall inflation in the eurozone increased in December by +9.2 per cent year-on-year, with a 13.8% hike in food, alcohol & tobacco products, the agency reported last month.
Eurostat categorizes "pizza and quiche products" as including store-bought varieties of "flour based products prepared with meat, fish, seafood, cheese, vegetables or fruit".