Slovak food prices increase 46% since 2000

The prices of foodstuffs have recorded an uptick of nearly 46 percent since the beginning of the new millennium, with Slovakia ranking in the middle of the European price chart along with Austria, TASR learnt from Slovak Farming Collective (SFD) analyst Eva Sadovská on Tuesday. According to Sadovská, Slovakia has the notorious distinction this year of being the country with the fastest growth in prices of foods and non-alcoholic beverages within the entire EU. "When taking into account price developments since the beginning of the millennium, however, Slovakia's ranking within Europe isn't that tragic. Along with Austria, Slovakia has recorded growth in prices of foods and non-alcoholic beverages of 45.7 percent since 2000 and is thus in the middle of the European chart," she said. The slowest growth in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages between 2000-2017 was seen in Ireland (7.6 percent). Conversely, Romania wound up on the opposite side of the spectrum (185.6 percent). "For the record, according to calculations based on the Statistics Office's data, the average nominal salaries of Slovaks have gone up by 145 percent since 2000. Hence, according to statistics, the salaries of Slovaks have increased more than prices of goods and services over the past 17 years, foods and non-alcoholic beverages included," added Sadovská.