FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Albanian families are being devastated by the high costs of basic living products. Official data from Eurostat, the European Statistical Agency, shows that Albania is one of the countries with the highest prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages in Europe, leaving behind much wealthier countries including Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
According to Eurostat, the level of food prices in Albania last year was 103.8 percent of the European Union average, measured in purchasing power parity terms. The same indicator in Germany was 102.4 percent, in Italy it was 101.1 percent, while in the Netherlands and Spain it was 99.4 percent and 95.3 percent, respectively.
This means that Albanian families pay much more for basic living products than even the richest countries in Europe, while with similar economies the price difference for this category of products is even greater.
According to Eurostat, in North Macedonia the level of food prices is 74.8 percent of the EU average. In Bosnia this indicator results in 85.8 percent, while in Serbia it is 97.1 percent.
Due to poverty, Albanian families dedicate the largest share of their budgets to buying food. Currently, Albanians spend 35.6 percent of their total income on food alone, while in the EU this indicator is around 13 percent.
The high burden of food expenditures combined with high prices is an impoverishing mix for Albanian families. In all these years, the Albanian state has not undertaken any policy to alleviate this heavy cost on families, while the reasons for this are related to market capture and the high level of taxes that the government applies on basic foods.
Lini një Përgjigje