A poll taken for Citadele Bank in January revealed that only six Estonian residents out of 100 are not bothered by the rise in food prices.
Food prices rose by nearly 16 percent in Estonia last year, with sugar making the biggest jump with a whopping 42.2 percent.
The survey found that three in four people in Estonia are most concerned about rising prices of meat and fish.
Data from Statistics Estonia show that the consumer price index rose 9.2 percent in Estonia in 2023. The prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 15.8 percent, and it is the rising price of food that worries people the most, with 76 percent of respondents in the poll responding that way.
Seventy-four percent of respondents were most concerned about meat and fish prices. The next most disturbing thing was the growing price of fresh fruits and vegetables.
“Meat and fish are traditionally a higher-priced grocery segment anyway, and their higher price tag probably hurts people even more,” said Marina Hakiainen, head of retail banking at Citadele Bank. “We asked the same question to people in Latvia and Lithuania, and it turned out that while they were generally worried about the same things, they were not so worried about meat and fish prices, for example. While in Estonia the ratio was 74 percent, in Latvia it was 68 percent and in Lithuania 67 percent.”
Hakiainen added that although Estonian food prices have grown faster than in Europe on average, the price growth here has been very similar to that in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Milk and dairy products were in third place after meat and fish, fruits and vegetables, with 42 percent, bread and flour products were fourth with 25 percent, and eggs fifth with 18 percent. Higher-priced coffee frustrates 12 percent and sweets seven percent of respondents in Estonia.
Six percent of respondents here said that they were not bothered by the rise in food prices at all, compared with 7 percent in Latvia and nine percent in Lithuania.
According to the same survey, 55 percent of residents in Estonia are concerned about the price of electricity, 46 percent about heating and housing costs and 37 percent about increased fuel prices.
The survey commissioned by Citadele bank was conducted by pollster Norstat in January this year by interviewing 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and 74 in each of the three Baltic countries.
Source: BNS
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