Bread to loo roll: How UK prices compare to five EU countries

Loo roll, food and ketchup are much costly successful the UK compared to immoderate of our biggest European neighbours, probe for the BBC suggests.

But the UK is the cheapest for nappies and frozen pizza, user analysts Circana found.

We compared the prices of 23 nutrient and non-food items successful France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

When we added up the outgo of buying them all, Germany came retired arsenic the cheapest and France the astir expensive.

Our snapshot suggested that shoppers successful the UK were typically paying £3.80 for loo rotation erstwhile a comparable battalion costs £2.66 successful Italy and £2.87 successful Germany.

Canned food - similar tuna - typically costs £1.62 successful the UK but is arsenic beloved arsenic £3.15 successful Italy and £2.51 successful Spain.

But the information besides revealed that items similar bread, eggs and cooking lipid were each mostly cheaper successful the UK.

The main UK supermarkets person denied making other profits from precocious prices and galore person already been cutting the terms of items similar breadstuff and butter. But Ananda Roy astatine Circana thinks retailers tin spell further.

"The imaginable for UK households to proceed paying much than they bash already, adjacent if ostentation levels out, is untenable for many," said the planetary elder vice president of strategical maturation insights.

"As commodity prices travel down steadily, determination is imaginable for retailers and brands to bash much for hard-pressed consumers successful the UK," added Mr Roy.

A caller survey from Oxford Economics recovered UK nutrient costs were astir 7% beneath the EU average. But that covers a immense assortment of countries.

We asked Circana, which specialises successful analysing user data, to look astatine immoderate circumstantial products successful countries with the biggest, astir developed economies successful the European Union.

"Whilst successful the UK we're experiencing higher prices for definite mundane items, astatine the aforesaid we're paying little than our European counterparts for others," said Mr Roy.

However, trying to comparison the outgo of nutrient betwixt countries is "super complex", said William Woods, who covers the European market marketplace arsenic an expert for Bernstein.

There are a full big of factors that tin impact wherefore nutrient prices tin differ.

The level of contention is important. In Germany, much than 40% of the marketplace is made up by the discount supermarkets with cheaper ain statement products. There are besides differences successful eating habits and levels of nutrient accumulation to instrumentality into account.

The UK imports astir 40% of its food. Mr Roy astatine Circana said this meant it paid a "buyer's premium" successful what is present an progressively volatile proviso chain. Brexit hasn't helped.

Then there's politics. In different words, taxation, subsidies, and regulation. In France, for instance, greater extortion for producers whitethorn beryllium driving immoderate higher nutrient prices successful stores, said Mr Woods.

Mr Roy and his squad astatine Circana looked astatine the terms per portion based connected comparable battalion sizes close crossed a category.

The terms you spot successful the charts is the mean for each the antithetic types of merchandise including branded and non-branded items. The outgo successful euros was past converted into pounds utilizing the Bank of England's conversion rate.

The information is for March. In the UK, it doesn't see the discounters, Aldi and Lidl, which marque up 17% of the UK market sector. But the probe covers astir 80% of the marketplace successful each of the different 5 countries.

This is simply a tiny snapshot. For instance, there's nary caller effect and veg which was excessively hard to comparison due to the fact that of seasonality, sizing and the magnitude of nutrient grown domestically.

The graph supra shows the wide quality successful terms for the 23 products we looked astatine added together. Germany is the cheapest, £20 little than France which is mode retired successful front. Our store is 3rd cheapest successful this league table, reasonably similar, successful fact, with Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

Andrew Opie from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said: "This probe confirms UK consumers payment from a highly competitory market, delivering immoderate of the cheapest groceries successful Europe.

"We judge it underestimates the savings British consumers are making erstwhile buying staple nutrient items, including caller produce, arsenic good arsenic the worth consumers tin find by buying around, different payment of the beardown contention successful the UK market."

Food terms inflation, the complaint astatine which prices are changing, is affecting each European country.

Mr Roy said successful caller weeks ostentation had been easing successful Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, wherever prices roseate earlier than the UK. He expects the UK volition travel suit implicit the adjacent fewer months.