Margin freeze here or there – has Hungarian shopping become cheaper? A test of prices in three countries

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 03. 21. 11:29

In the spring of 2024, the Hungarian government introduced another measure to curb inflation: a mark-up cap came into effect on 30 basic foodstuffs, the maximum mark-up of which was set at 10 percent. But has shopping in Hungary really become cheaper? A joint report by Deutsche Welle and Telex explored this very question with an international price comparison experiment.

Three cities, one shopping list

The reporters went grocery shopping in three locations – Budapest, Oradea (Romania) and Oberwart (Austria) – with the same list of ten items: flour, milk, eggs, sugar, oil, apples, onions, chicken breast, cheese and pasta. The goal was to compare not only the products with the price cap, but also some other basic foodstuffs.

The result? The Hungarian basket was not the cheapest. Although prices were indeed more favorable for some regulated products, the advantage was not nearly as clear for non-price-capped foods. Some products cost less in Romania, others in Austria, than in Hungary.

It’s not just the price that matters – but also the salary

Prices alone are not enough to give the full picture. It’s also important to see how much purchasing power people have in each country. According to Eurostat’s median earnings data for 2023 and 2024:

an Austrian worker earns on average three and a half times as much as a Hungarian worker;
the Romanian median earnings are already approaching the Hungarian ones, but in some regions – especially in large cities close to the western border – they already exceed them.

All this means that even though some products are cheaper in Hungary, if earnings are significantly lower, purchasing everyday food is a greater financial burden for Hungarian households than for Austrians or even Romanian city dwellers.

Margin cap – effective, but how is important

The lesson of the report is that the margin cap alone is not enough to significantly reduce consumer burdens, especially when the indirect effects of the regulation – such as the increase in the price of other products, the impossibility of smaller stores – affect the market as a whole.

The aim of the measure is to prevent unjustified price increases, but at the same time the report highlights that a price cap does not replace purchasing power and is sustainable in the long term if we take into account not only prices, but also incomes.