NIN: Prices of Best-Selling Products in Serbia Growing Twice as Fast as Salaries and Pensions

The prices of the majority of the products that are mostly frequently shopped in the three big retail chains in Serbia have grown incomparably faster that the citizens’ earnings, the NIN weekly concludes in a published survey. In two years, the salaries and pensions have grown 28%, and the consumer basket with a hundred best-sold products in one retail chain has grown 48.2% in price, writes NIN, as reported by the N1 portal.

– The survey has shown that the average salaries and pensions in May 2023 were enough to buy almost a fifth less of the same products in stores than in May 2021 – said Milan Culibrk, the editor-in-chief of NIN in an article published in the new issue of said weekly.

When the increase of the average salaries and pensions is compared to the official price growth – from 10.4% between May 2021 and 2022 and another 14.8% in the next 12 months, the conclusion might be that the salaries and pensions are growing faster than the prices, or that they are at least not lagging behind.

– The devil, however, is in the details, because it is precisely the prices of the articles that the citizens purchase the most that have increased far above the average – NIN writes.

Food prices, the magazine reminds, first increased 16.2% in the past 24 months, and then by another 24.5% – 44.7% in total.

– For the majority of the citizens who spend the lion’s share of their earnings to meet the basic living needs, that is the true measure of the inflation – NIN reminds.

According to the official statistics, the sale of goods in retail stores under constant prices in May this year was 6.2% lower than in May last year.

– The survey has shown that, for an average April salary, in May 2021, which was RSD 17,821 lower than now, you could buy 928 kilograms of onions in a store chain, and in 2023, you couldn’t even buy 460 kilograms of onions. Two years ago, in that same store, you could buy 1,082 kilograms of red potatoes, and this year, it’s barely 552 kilograms – NIN writes.

Back then, an average salary was enough to buy 185.6 kilograms of hard yellow cheese, now it’s 118 kilograms, two years ago, you could buy 499 fresh milk packages of one and a half liters, now it’s only 376, back then, it was 118 kilograms of boneless pork legs, now the salary is not enough even for 82 kilograms.

Two years ago, you could buy 101 liters of yogurt more than you can buy now – 541 as opposed to 436 liters.

– Of the 100 best-selling articles in May this year, in the past two years, the prices of as many as 73 products have grown faster than the average salaries and pensions. Furthermore, the prices of another 17 articles, mostly beers and non-alcoholic beverages, have grown slightly more slowly than the salaries in the range between 20% and 27%, whereas only the prices of two kinds of fruit, apples (10%) and mandarins (4.8%) have grown considerably less than the citizens’ earnings. On the other hand, the prices of as many as six products, four kinds of vegetables, fresh yeast and hard yellow cheese, have grown in the past 24 months by more than 100% – NIN writes.

The prices of food in Serbia, NIN reminds, are growing faster than most other products.

– And that citizens have started saving on food as well is shown by the data that, in retail stores, in May, at constant prices, the sale of food, beverages and tobacco was lower by as much as 7.6% than 12 months before. That can be considered a direct consequence of the excessive increase in the prices of basic foodstuffs. What’s also noticeable is that it is happening right around the time when foods prices are dropping in the world – the weekly points out.

Milan Ćulibrk

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sale of goods in retail stores

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