The survey was based on price information from the spring of 2006 and it covered 500 comparable products in the 27 EU countries, three candidate countries (Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey), three countries of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), and four Western Balkan countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania and Montenegro).
The Eurostat price index shows that Croatians pay 89% of the average EU price of food and drinks, the Spanish pay 92%, the Dutch and Portuguese 88%, Slovenes 86%, Turks 84% and the Maltese 83% of the EU average.
The most expensive European countries are EFTA members Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Of the EU countries, Denmark has the highest prices of food, alcohol and tobacco.
The cheapest countries covered by the survey are Bulgaria and Macedonia, whose citizens pay 56% of the average EU price for the same product.
As for tobacco prices, Croatia is well below the EU average (the index being 65), but its price index for alcoholic drinks (113) puts it, along with Italy, above the European average.