Compared to the previous survey, the average price of the cheapest basic food basket has fallen by €2.84, or almost 6.5%. The difference between the cheapest and the most expensive basic food basket offered by retailers has now also fallen to a little over €5 in this latest survey. This indicates a convergence of minimum prices between retailers.

The cheapest basic food basket currently costs €39.06, which is then closely followed by two retailers with slightly more expensive basic food baskets, with prices standing at €39.43 and €39.79, respectively. For the other three retailers included in the price monitoring, the cheapest basket of 15 basic foods is somewhat more expensive (compared to the cheapest three retailers), with the most expensive currently reaching €44.28. The latest survey differs from previous ones in that only one retailer has increased the price of its basic food basket. The prices of the other five decreased, most of them by just under 14%, followed by decreases of almost 9% and just over 8%. Only one retailer had a minimal decrease in pricing (by €0.01).

Considering the whole period of price monitoring for the basket of 15 basic foods (from 13 September 2022 to 17 January 2023), the average price of the cheapest basket was the lowest in the latest survey, costing €41.28. This is a decrease of just over 17% from the first survey where the basic food basket cost €49.90.

Analyses of the 10th survey’s results show that prices of cereal products have risen the most compared to the 9th survey; the price of pasta has gone up by almost 6%, flour by just over 4% and bread by over 3.5%. However, there have been notable decreases in the price of pork, which has fallen by just under 25%, and beef, which has fallen by 20% compared to the first survey in 2023.

The average cost of the fruit and vegetables included in the basket has decreased by €1.28 (4.28%) since the previous survey and now stands at €28.54. This has also widened the gap between the least and the most expensive of the cheapest fruit and vegetable basket at individual retailers, which currently stands at €12.56. The price of the cheapest fruit and vegetable basket decreased at only two retailers, while the price of the other four increased marginally.

An analysis of product choice by retailer shows that retailers that offer a larger range of selected food products have more than 1.5 times the range of fruit and vegetable products (in selected categories) and 2.5 times the range of basic foods (in selected categories). The results show that all the retailers offer the largest range of products in the categories of butter and apples, followed by bread, flour, chicken meat, sunflower oil and pasta; whereas the smallest range of products offered by retailers is in the categories of beef, sugar, eggs and pork.