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Denmark is EU’s most expensive country for buying groceries

Ritzau/The Local
Ritzau/The Local - [email protected]
Denmark is EU’s most expensive country for buying groceries
File photo: Johan Gadegaard / Midtjyske Medier / Ritzau Scanpix

Shopping for food in Denmark results in higher costs at the checkout than in any other EU country.

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Denmark is the most expensive country for food and drink products – excluding alcoholic drinks – in the EU, according to Statistics Denmark calculations.

Danish prices for food and drink are around 30 percent higher than the EU average, with bread and wheat-based products particularly standing out for their relative expense.

Last year, Denmark was also rated as the union’s priciest country for consumer goods.

The EU’s cheapest prices for groceries can be found in Romania and Poland, while Luxembourg, Austria and Finland were the next-most expensive countries after Denmark.

Several reasons can be ascribed to Denmark’s relatively high grocery costs, according to Mads Lundby Hansen, head economist with liberal thinktank Cepos.

“It is connected with aspects such as a high level of affluence, which pushes up wages and thereby prices. We also have relatively high value added tax (moms in Danish, ed.), which also affects prices,” Hansen told Ritzau via a written message.

Outside of the EU but remaining in Europe, some countries do have higher prices than Denmark.

Switzerland, Norway and Iceland have prices 65, 61 and 50 percent higher than the EU average, respectively.

Neither is Denmark the EU’s most expensive country for certain products.

The Scandinavian country is at around the EU average for the price of tobacco, putting it behind the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Alcohol prices in Denmark are 24 percent over the EU average, but even that is cheap in comparison with Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Greece, the United Kingdom and Estonia, where prices range from 26 to 82 percent above the EU average.

READ ALSO: Denmark is most expensive EU country for consumer goods

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