German food discounts are getting more expensive

Prices at discount German supermarkets Aldi and Lidl have risen quicker than those at their more expensive competitors, a consumer watchdog study revealed on Thursday.

Customers shopping at the country's cheaper supermarkets in August paid four percent more for their items than at the same point the year before, while at what market research group GfK considered “normal supermarkets”, prices went up by 1.6 percent.

There are, the GfK said, a number of reasons for this. One of them being that cheaper stores have over the past year increased their range of organic and regionally sources products, which, on the whole are more expensive and thus push up price averages.

GfK trade expert Robert Kecskes said that a noticeable monthly increase in prices had been happening since March this year. They have also been increasing faster than inflation which stands at around 1.5 percent.