Food prices rising fastest in Hungary?

There is good reason to believe that bread will soon become a luxury item in the country: we have seen the biggest increase in the price of bread in the past year. Hungary shows the highest price increases for several food products.

A survey about the prices of foodstuffs

The prices of seven basic foodstuffs were compared in Privátbankár.hu’s Árkosár (Price Basket) survey based on Eurostat data. It was found that the price of bread, for example, had already risen by more than 12 percent in Hungary last November.

And in May, we reached the point where, in a year, we have to pay 38.4 percent more for the same bread in Hungary than last year. Looking at prices in neighbouring countries, the highest price changes were recorded in Bulgaria and Hungary, where prices rose by almost 40 percent.

As Blikk.hu writes, such a price rise cannot be explained solely by the Russian-Ukrainian war. However, it is not surprising if we consider the fact that it was already known in January that the mills had raised the price of flour by 10-15 percent, which meant that the price of bread was bound to rise.

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Egg, cheese, butter

Egg prices have also increased significantly. Eurostat, based on data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH), has forecast an increase of almost 30 percent for May, with the only countries in the region with higher prices than Hungary being the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

For cheese and cottage cheese, only the Bulgarians are ahead of us, with a price change of 35.4 percent, one of the highest price rises in Europe for months, with only Lithuania showing a slight increase. The price of butter is something to be somewhat proud of: the 31.1 percent increase is at least not the highest in the region.

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Meat

For pork, the increase in May was above 13 percent, but this is also a figure for the surrounding countries, with Hungary having the lowest increase in pork prices, in which the government price freeze on pork legs may have played a role.

Poultry in domestic stores was 34.2 percent more expensive. This figure is also the second highest after Bulgaria, even though the price of chicken tail, chicken breast and some chicken giblets in Hungary is also currently fixed under the price freeze from 1 February 2022.

In its article, mfor.hu underscores that according to Eurostat data, even the smallest price increase in the region is above 10 percent. However, in many neighbouring countries, prices are significantly lower, so the assumption that the price explosion is due to the war in the neighbouring country is not true. For example, in Romania, also a neighbour of Ukraine, most of the products surveyed have risen by the smallest – or almost the smallest – amount.

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Source: Blikk.hu, mfor.hu, privatbankar.hu