Hungarian prices beat Scotland and Spain

food store spar inflation price hungary (2)

Photo: Daily News Hungary

Striving to display the cheapest possible prices, a Hungarian news portal made a thorough comparison between the cost of grocery items in Scotland and Spain and the ones in Hungary, where the amount of money spent on foodstuff nearly doubled since 2015.

Szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu examined food prices in Scotland and Spain, from banana to egg and sugar to cola, and compared them to the costs of Hungarian grocery items.

Hungarians living in border settlements can save up to HUF 40,000 (EUR 101.9)a month by going shopping in neighbouring countries. The reason behind this is that annual food inflation in Hungary was 49 percent in December, compared to 29 percent in Slovakia and 23 percent in Romania, according to the World Bank.

Read also: Apart from Russia, only Hungary is likely to sink into recession in Europe

Two Hungarians living abroad reported on the prices in Scotland and Spain. In the former, a cheap discount chain’s, and in the latter, a mid-range chain’s prices were observed.

Once the prices had been standardised – since the products are not standardised in terms of packaging, number of items, weight and currency – striking conclusions were drawn.

Is shopping cheaper in the West?

Let’s see the prices of the most basic foodstuff that can be found in every household, eggs.

Hungary – HUF 100 (EUR 0.25)/piece
Scotland – HUF 65 (EUR 0.15)/piece
Spain – HUF 50 (EUR 0.13)/piece

UHT milk was a product that was commonly missing from supermarket shelves, firstly, due to COVID-19, secondly because of the Russian-Ukrainian war and, thirdly, for the continuous inflation.

Hungary – HUF 370 (EUR 0.94)/1 l
Scotland – HUF 270 (EUR 0.69)/1 l

Granulated sugar is another staple that has become scarce as a result of panic puying. Due to the price freeze, although there are divergent views on that, the price of this foodstuff remained more or less stable for a long period of time.

Hungary – HUF 240 (EUR 0.61)/1 kg
Scotland – HUF 410 (EUR 1.04)/1 kg
Spain – HUF 520 (EUR 1.33)/1 kg

The price of dairy products, such as sour cream, kefir, cheese but also fruit yoghurt, has recently skyrocketed in Hungary.

Hungary – HUF 185 (EUR 0.47)/1 can
Scotland – HUF 60 (EUR 0.15)/1 can
Spain – HUF 120 (EUR 0.30)/1 box

It is debatable what percentage of meat content in a sausage is considered edible, but the cheapest one clearly contains the least meat. Nevertheless, even those products saw a sharp price hike.

Hungary – HUF 1,000 (EUR 2.55)/half kg
Scotland – HUF 1,100 (EUR 2.80)/half kg
Spain – HUF 510 (EUR 1.30)/half kg

Since the prices of all of its ingredients, such as eggs and flour, went up, the cost of spaghetti pasta also soared.

Hungary – HUF 420 (EUR 1.07)/half kg
Scotland – HUF 120 (EUR 0.30)/half kg
Spain – HUF 290 (EUR 0.74)/half kg

Coca-Cola is one of the things which can be considered relatively cheap in all three countries.

Hungary – HUF 610 (EUR 1.55)/2 l
Scotland – HUF 1,120 (EUR 2.85)/2 l
Spain – HUF 810 (EUR 2.06)/2 l

However, the price of bananas is double in Hungary compared to Scotland.

Hungary – HUF 670 (EUR 1.71)/1 kg
Scotland – HUF 305 (EUR 0.78)/1 kg

The rustic baguette also experienced a two-fold increase.

Hungary – HUF 1,440 (EUR 3.67)/1 kg
Spain – HUF 590 (EUR 1.50)/1 kg

Having said all that, a tray of wrapped chicken breast fillets costs more or less the same at home and in the Mediterranean country.

Hungary – HUF 2,000 (EUR 5.10)/1 kg
Spain – HUF 1,920 (EUR 4.89)/1 kg

Hungary hit by biggest price increases

Eurostat statistics show that food prices have risen more in less developed countries since 2015 than in countries with stronger economies. The data demonstrate that Hungary has beaten all other countries in the region when it comes to price increases, followed neck and neck by Slovakia and Romania, wrote piacesprofit.hu. Hungary’s agriculture used to be an area we could all be proud of in terms of competitiveness, but that’s a thing of the past.

In economically more advanced countries such as Croatia and Austria, food inflation is not even at EU levels, based on the harmonised index of consumer prices of the last 8 years. If we look at product prices rather than harmonised consumer prices, the increase has more than doubled since 2015 in Hungary.