Although Albania is the poorest country in Europe, with GDP per capita being 32% of the European average, according to Eurostat (data do not include Kosovo), the country's citizens have to pay dearly to buy food and drink, and other products, such as communication and the purchase of electronic devices for home use. 

Eurostat has published the price index for goods and services for European countries. In Albania, prices as a whole are as much as 61% of the European average. This is the highest percentage of countries in the region after Montenegro (69%), but the latter had incomes as much as 47% of the European average, from 32% that Albania has this indicator. 

The cheapest prices are in Turkey (40% of the European average), Northern Macedonia (51.5), Bosnia and Herzegovina (55.8), Serbia (59.9). 

When it comes to food, for which Albanian households have the highest share of expenditures in their budget (about 42%, from 13% which is the average of the European Union), prices are almost the same as in Europe and the most expensive in region. 

The Eurostat Food Index is 83% of the European average, more expensive than in Montenegro (78.3). Food in the region is the cheapest in Northern Macedonia, at 61.4% of the European average. 

Food prices in Albania are more expensive than in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria. Expensive in Albania are also clothes and shoes, with about 96% of the EU average. Restaurants are cheaper (46% of the EU average). 

Communication is expensive (108% of the EU average). The most expensive of all is the purchase of household appliances (120%) and electronic ones (110%) 

Personal transport equipment is the most expensive in the region (86% of the EU average).

(Source: Monitor)