Is Belgrade expensive?
According to the Serbian Research institute, no. They claim that Belgrade is one of the cheaper, if not the cheapest city in the region. Citizens and certain economic NGOs think that there is something wrong with the research and claim that they can’t find the products that bear the same price tag as reported in the institute’s research. In it, cost of food and groceries in Belgrade is lower than that in Zagreb, Ljubljana, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Budapest and Bucharest and Sofia.
I’ve had the article on the Belgraded site where I claimed that one of Belgrade’s touristic advantages are the low prices, but I had to take it down because the prices had indeed gone up lately, and it could be considered misleading. Belgrade became more expensive lately especially when it comes to food and clothes, while electronic equipment has always been more expensive than in some more developed countries in the EU. Housing prices are lower than the EU average, but they were not included in the research. As discussed previously, Serbian average salary is somewhere below 400 euros.
In the end, a poll for you living in Belgrade, foreigners and locals – what do you think about the cost of living in Belgrade? Is it an expensive city to live in compared to some other city you lived in?
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[...] Belgraded and Balkan File discuss whether Belgrade is a cheap city or not. Posted by Veronica Khokhlova Print version Share This [...]
Belgrade in comparison to Ljubljana:
restaurants can be much cheaper, cafes a little bit cheaper, while grocery shops are actually more expensive due to lack of healthy competition in supermarkets.
apartment rent: a bit cheaper.
apartment purchase: as expensive as in Ljubljana, if not even more expensive.
Absolute prices considered.
Thanks for the comparison, Darknewt. This research dealt only with groceries in supermarkets, if they talked about that other things you mentioned it would be fine, but it is exactly supermarkets where we can't really compete with the region.
I noticed that Adam wrote about the exact same topic at the same time as I did, please check out his take on the subject as well.
In the UK food prices have been relatively stable since the enormous rises this time last year. Did food prices not go up in Belgrade then , or are you getting a second beating?
I think the food prices here are rising very very slowly all the time, instead of huge leaps periodically. Maybe that’s why it seems that they are stagnating and nobody notices the inflation.
Reminds me of that joke when a guy comes to the gas station and asks the station manager: “How much for a drop of gas?” Manager says “Drop of gas? That’s free…” “Ok, than” the guy says “can you drip 40 liters in my reservoir, please?”
As a Gasterbaiter from North America, I can now firmly say that Belgrade is as expensive as Canada. Entertainment wise, drinks at a normal cafe (Ana 4 pistolja) cost as much as a typical half pint at a Irish pub. Food in Maxi and Pijaca is more expensive or equal to the prices of typical supermarkers. Cars are very overpriced in Belgrade compared to North America. I cannot believe a used Yugo can fetch 1000 euros. A BMW from the early 90's can be found for that amount of money( 3 series of course) All electrionics are also way overpriced. Concerts are too expensive too. Sonic Youth was just 30 dollars( 1500 dinars) in Toronto.
Well there are a few things that are cheap and plentiful. Property taxes, Bus tickets, Beer in those plastic 2 litre bottles, Vinjak, Stomaklija, Manastirka, odd no name Vodka that makes my head hurt, pirated films,rent( well actually similar to Montreal), University education and of course wonderful conversations with cool folks from Krivi Stojko.
Too bad I don't have money to come back as much. I guess Ill have to go to Nis or Zrenjanin. Vrsac is also very nice.
Right I also forgot, the wonderful Local Morava and Drina ciggies, the soul of Serbia. Plus no girl will want to bum it from you so you can enjoy all 20 of them.
Yes sports tickets are almost free. seeing a Zemun home game is free i think. I dont know now.
What else, Tasmajdan is also damn expensive. Sneakers also cost a lot, except the ones from the Chinese trzni centar.
I can't say much about recent prices in Belgrade, but they used to be lower than in Zagreb. The research institute says also that Zagreb is the most expensive city in the region, and that doesn't come as a surprise. A liter of yogurt costs around 1,40 euro; milk 70 cents (at best), and a liter of domestic beer can cost up to almost 2 euro. And then I haven't mentioned wine, cheese, olive oil and meat yet.
The problem here is that there is not enough foreign competition, or rather: via taxes non-Croatian products are made artificially expensive. This protectionism makes a few entrepreneurs even richer at the expense of ordinary consumers.
Thanks for the info about prices from Zagreb and Canada, Boris and Gricko. Good to have some more insight in this matter. Competition (or lack of) is one of the problems, I agree.
Hm, unofficial statistics, according to http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?city=Belgrade&country=Serbia
says that Belgrade is only ~30% cheaper than New York.
Welcome to Serbia….........http://max-balkanboy.blogspot.com/2012/04/welcome-to-serbia.html