Goods on the shelves, including food and beverages, may be relatively cheap in Slovakia compared to most EU-member countries, but they're long-term the most expensive when only the Visegrad Four (V4) group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) is considered, Poštová banka analyst Lucia Dovalová has noted. Prices in the other V4 countries are 14 percent lower than in Slovakia on average, with food, for example, 8-9 percent cheaper in the Czech Republic and Hungary, and as much as 30 percent cheaper in Poland. "The price difference in the latter case is mainly due to quality, however," said Dovalová. Pointing to the phenomenon of many Slovaks, mainly from Bratislava, shopping in Austria, although average prices there are as much as 40 percent higher than in Slovakia, Dovalová said that this is due to the supposition that a higher price means better quality. Nevertheless, some food is cheaper in Austria than in Slovakia, noted the analyst.
"Observing developments in the past decade, we
can see that our food prices have been constantly the highest in the V4,"
said Dovalová, adding that Slovakia was on an equal footing with Hungary ten
years ago, but prices in the latter country have fallen by around 9 percent
since then. Dovalová noted that food prices generally depend on developments on
global markets regarding agricultural commodities, crops in individual
countries, VAT, people's purchasing power, marketing, competition among retail
chains and the prices of fuels translated into transport costs.
