Top price increase came in 2021

The past year has been hectic in many ways. The change in the average price of individual products and services is no exception. Among the most expensive goods, there are almost exclusively food products, some of which have become 20-30 per cent more expensive compared to 2020. Many of these products are staple foods. There were two vegetables in Hungary that became 20 per cent more expensive in 1 month.

The year 2020 is over, and it has become possible to examine how the price of certain products and services changed compared to January last year. The analysis of Pénzcentrum revealed that by January 2021, 

the price of apples, sunflower oil, and unpolished husked rice increased the most.

The price of a kilogram of apples rose 30 per cent, and the price of cooking oil and rice went up by 21 and 17.7 per cent in the last 12 months. In 2020, several cigarette brands, white bread, cucumbers, oranges, and granulated sugar were among the top 10 most expensive products.

Among these products, two had a base price of above HUF 1,000 in January 2020, and these were cigarettes. In the case of other products, a price change of a few hundred forints can be observed. For example, in the case of apples, while in January 2020, an average of 345 forints per kilo had to be paid, in January 2021, it was 449 forints. Similarly, in the case of one litre of sunflower oil, an increase of more than 100 forints can be observed, while the price of husked rice increased by 60 forints.

The CSO lists a total of 95 products and services.

In addition to the top 10 more expensive products, there are 28 other products and services whose price rose by at least 5 per cent in one year.

This category includes but is not limited to white and red wine, eggs, and museum tickets. There are 7 products whose average price has not changed, such as a single ticket or a cubic metre of piped gas. However, the price of a kilo of potatoes decreased by more than 10 per cent.

From the data, we can see not only the annual change but also the changes in the last 1 month. Outstanding in this sense is cucumber, the price of which rose by 24 per cent, while tomatoes became 19.9 per cent more expensive. In addition, the price of margarine and banana rose more than 5 per cent. There were 11 other products whose price increased between 2 and 5 per cent in the past month.

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Source: Pénzcentrum