Have you ever thought about if prices in your home country are expensive or inexpensive? Have you felt that you have to pay too much when you buy something that is necessary in your everyday life? Or do you think that you can buy your basic shoppings at a quite low price?

In Finland many people think that our country is very expensive, particularly when we compare it to other European countries. But is this really true? Studies show that Finland really isn’t very expensive but on the other hand it is more expensive than many other European countries. In Finland an average price of food is about 23 per cent above the average of 28 European countries. When we look at this number we can get an impression that Finland is unbelievably expensive but this isn’t the whole truth.

There are many things that have an effect when we compare prices in other countries. It isn’t just where they have to pay the largest sum of money. We have to remember that wages are also different in different countries. For example, here in Finland we get a much better salary than people in Bulgaria or Albania but they also have cheaper prices.

But what is the most expensive country when we pay attention to wages and prices? When we look at the list of prices in European countries we can see that when we combine wages and prices Finland stands on the fifth place. The most expensive country is Switzerland.

Finland is the most expensive of these four countries that take part in our project. The second is Germany and then comes Spain. There isn’t a very big difference between Germany and Spain, but the difference between Germany and Finland is quite big. In Germany the general price of consumption is about two per cent above the average of European countries. In Spain this number is about five per cent below the average.

We can see a big difference between Poland and the other countries that attend the project. In Poland the general price of consumption is just 57 per cent of the average of European countries. So the difference between Finland and Poland is huge.

But what makes these differences between the countries? One thing that has a big effect is taxation. In Finland taxation is much heavier than in Germany, Spain or Poland. But it is necessary to remember that Finns also get a better salary. In some countries alcohol and sweets are tax-free but in Finland they aren’t. Taxation is one of the most important reasons for differences between prices in different countries.

Satu-Lotta Pitko