Eurostat: Alcohol, food surprisingly cheap in Hungary

A detailed study on the cost of food in Europe has been published. As it turned out, Hungary has one of the lowest food and alcohol prices across the continent.

European study

Eurostat has published a detailed study comparing food, drink and tobacco prices across Europe. The document examines data from 36 countries, assembled in 2022. The countries include the 27 EU Member States and three EFTA countries Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Also included are six candidate countries Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.

The Hungarian press frequently comes up with headlines that the sky-high inflation pushes Hungarian food prices to astronomical levels, but the Eurostat study seems to contradict this.

Hungary ranks the 9th cheapest country in terms of food and non-alcoholic beverage costs. The lowest prices were measured in Turkey, which turned out to be 64% below the EU level. At the other end of the scale is Switzerland, where food costs 163% of the EU average.

In the region, only Romania and Poland are cheaper than Hungary, while the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia proved to be more expensive, világgazdaság.hu reports.

Cheapest alcohol in Hungary

Eurostat also looked at the price of alcoholic beverages and found that Hungary has the cheapest booze out of the 36 countries surveyed. Hungarian prices were 18% below the EU average. The most expensive was Iceland, where alcohol costs threefold the EU average.

Aside from alcohol, there is also no complaint about the price of tobacco products in Hungary, which are valued at 76.2% of the average EU prices. In Turkey, they are even cheaper, with prices sitting at only 26.2%. Ireland serves as a striking contrast with its contrast 260% rate.

Broken down by product groups, bread is 90% of the EU average, meat 72.9% and fish 88.6%. However, the cost of milk, cheese and eggs are above the EU average.

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