Mamma mia! Pizza got 16% more expensive in the EU last year

(Reuters) - The cost of store-bought pizza and quiche in the European Union grew in December by 16% from a year earlier, the bloc's statistics agency Eurostat said on Wednesday.

As food lovers in the U.S. 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% yearly price increase, followed by Lithuania and Bulgaria on 39% and 37% respectively.

The smallest price hikes in pizza and quiche, lumped together in Eurostat's novel indicator, were recorded in Luxembourg (+7%), Italy (+10%) and France (+13%).

Overall inflation in the euro zone increased in December by +9.2% 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".

(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi, editing by Gavin Jones)