Czech Republic: many are afraid grocery prices will rise

If we check what the latest consumer index is in Hungary, in the neighbouring countries (with the exception of Austria) and in Poland and the Czech Republic, what we see is that it is the highest in the Czech Republic, despite that it fell 1 percentage point to 71. In the last quarter of 2013 the European average was 73 and the median value of the nine countries listed above was 58 points (the same as in the third quarter of 2013). From the index’s three components the Czechs were most optimistic as regards personal finances in the next 12 months: 42 percent viewed it to be more or less good and 56 percent said it would be bad to a certain extent. Only 14 percent of Czechs were optimistic about jobs and 30 percent opined that now is a good time to buy what they need. When asked what will cause them the biggest problem in the next 6 months, 16 percent of Czech consumers’ answered ‘rising grocery prices’. In comparison: the European average in this regards was 5 percent, being only the 8th most important threat.