Published 21 March 2023 at 13.16
Economics. Food prices in Sweden have risen by about the same amount as in other countries within the EU, according to a new report from the School of Economics, Lund University and the Swedish University of Agriculture.
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TwittraShare< p>Inflation in the Western world comes after the central banks greatly increased the money supply and pumped subsidies into large companies to save the stock market during the corona pandemic.
In Sweden, however, those in power, including ministers, have begun to blame the high food prices on the chain stores. It is claimed that the Swedish prices stand out and that ICA and other companies must have surreptitiously increased their prices to make money.
However, the comparison in the new report shows that Sweden does not differ from the average for the euro countries if you look over the entire period examined. But the development occasionally differs between different countries during parts of the period.
– During the second half of 2022, price increases in Sweden were somewhat higher than the average in the euro countries and at the end of 2022 the rate of price increases slowed in Denmark and Finland, while prices in Sweden and most other euro countries continued to rise, says Fredrik Wilhelmsson, director of the Agrifood Economics Center at the University of Economics , in a press release.
The report also discusses possible reasons why food price increases can differ between countries within the EU despite an internal market and a common agricultural and trade policy. Differences in the price increase rate for food between EU countries can arise due to, for example, differences in competition in the food chain, import costs, energy costs in food production and national politics.
During 2022, Sweden has faced relatively high import costs as a result of the weakening of the krona .
– The large increase in Swedish import prices coincides with a weakening of the krona. It has thus become more expensive to import food into Sweden. More expensive imports compared to other EU countries have likely contributed to the high rate of price increases in Sweden during the second half of 2022, says Fredrik Wilhelmsson.