The price of goods and services in Ireland is higher than in any other euro-zone country apart from Finland, according to an analysis by the European Union's statistical office, Eurostat.
The same basket of goods and services costing €100 in Ireland would cost €93 in Belgium, €92 in Germany or €95 in France. The cheapest countries are Portugal, where the basket would cost €66, Greece (€73), Spain (€77) and Italy (€79). Also cheaper than Ireland are Austria (€90), the Netherlands (€91) and Luxembourg (€88). Finland is more expensive than Ireland at €107, along with the three EU countries outside the euro zone: the UK (€109), Denmark (€112) and Sweden (€118).
The basket is supposed to represent all household spending. It has been built up from surveys of food prices, information on rents and housing, energy prices and the cost of travel and such services as haircuts. The data are based on prices from 2000, which have then been subjected to a lengthy process of checking and analysis.
Outside the EU, the costliest state was Switzerland, where the basket would cost €125. Among EU accession states, Poland would pay €50 and Bulgaria, which hopes to join the EU later in the decade comes bottom of the list at €22.
A recent euro-zone survey conducted by Forfás on prices following the changeover to the euro also found the Republic had the second-highest cost of living in the euro zone.
A Eurostat official said: "Huge price surveys lie behind these figures, one in the spring and one in the autumn. It is a very big exercise." The analysis makes plain the considerable variations in price levels across the European Union.
Eurostat has also produced an assessment of gross domestic product (GDP) consumed per person, adjusted to take account of these variations in price levels. Eurostat concludes that Norway and Luxembourg stand in a first group whose per capita GDP is greater than 125 per cent of the EU average. Ireland is in the next group of those countries whose GDP per capita volume is between 110 and 125 per cent of the EU average, along with the Netherlands, Austria, Iceland, Denmark and Switzerland.
