LIST: These items have seen a huge price hike or drop in Hungary in the last 12 months

A list of the items which become more expensive or have seen their prices drop since 2022 in Hungary has been revealed. Despite a few surprising ones, the list gives a clear indication as to why inflation is still higher in Hungary than in Western European countries.

The Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) recently reported that in March 2023, due to the high inflation, consumer prices were an average 25.2 percent higher than a year before. Now, hvg.hu obtained the full dataset, which revealed some interesting items that saw a price hike or drop.

KSH followed the price change of over 900 consumer items in the last 12 months, and from those 900 items, only 18 have seen a price drop. The 3 products with the largest price decreases are:

• home insurance for flats up to 50 square metres in old condominiums – 14.2 percent
• for apartments in old houses up to 80 square metres – 12.5 percent
• Xbox One game console – 11.8 percent

The report does not specify which generation of Xbox Console has seen a price drop, which is only odd since KSH are extremely meticulous with some other items on the list. In the last 12 months, these items also became cheaper:

• insurance for new homes
• notebook, sound projector, 32 GB memory card
• 123-139 cm smart LED TV and 76-82 cm LCD-LED TVs
• men’s perfume
• hand sanitiser – the pandemic is largely over; the current price drop compensates for the previously seen increase
• short-sleeved cotton T-shirts for children
• hearing aids
• liability insurance for the 2015 Skoda Octavia car
• the sunflower seed oil (already covered by a price cap) and peaches among the seasonal goods
• landline telephone subscription.