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Rent, fuel and cars: What has become more expensive in Switzerland?

Words ‘expensive’ and ‘Switzerland’ are not exactly strangers to each other, but as new official figures reveal, certain products have gotten even pricier recently.

Published: 4 January 2023 16:18 CET

Rent, fuel and cars: What has become more expensive in Switzerland?

Prices of cars went up in Switzerland, along with other goods and services. Image by Toby Parsons from Pixabay

Prices have been soaring in Switzerland since the war in Ukraine erupted in February 2022, and the upward trend has been continuing ever since, at least for certain products.

This is the finding of the Swiss Consumer Price Index released by the Federal Statistical Office on Wednesday.

It shows both bad and (relatively) good news.

First, the bad:

Inflation, which stood at 2.8 percent on average in 2022, has driven rents, as well as prices of natural gas, petroleum products, and cars upwards.

The good news, however, is that the price of mobile and fixed telecommunications, fuel, heating, and domestic products like local fruits and vegetables, has dropped by 0.2 percent in December 2022 (while imported goods became more expensive).

However, as anyone living in Switzerland and paying bills knows, price hikes for many goods and services have been far more extensive.

Electricity has soared by 20 to 60 percent, depending on the place of residence, and healthcare premiums skyrocketed by 6.6 percent on average, with many cantons’ rates far exceeding that number.

Swiss government confirms ‘sharp increase’ in electricity prices

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Food also became more expensive; generally speaking, up to now the price of pasta rose by 13 percent, cooking oil by 11 percent, and butter and coffee by 10 percent each.

Next are fish (9 percent); poultry, milk and yogurt (5 percent); bread and eggs (4 percent); and beef (3 percent).

Among non-foods, the price of toothpaste and other dental hygiene products rose by 12 percent, and clothing and shoes by 4 percent.

READ MORE: Switzerland: What can you expect to spend the most money on in 2023

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REVEALED : Are ‘discount’ supermarkets in Switzerland really cheaper?

Common consumer goods (except one) are typically more expensive in Switzerland than in neighbour countries — sometimes by much.

This includes food.

READ ALSO: Why Switzerland is the most expensive country in Europe

That is especially the case of largest Swiss chains, Migros and Coop, while Denner, Lidl, and Aldi say their food prices are significantly lower.

To find out whether this claim is actually true, journalists from RTS public broadcaster’s consumer programme went shopping in each of these supermarkets.

They purchased the same 30 products in each of the five supermarkets on the same day, to ensure that the price comparison is as accurate as possible.

Not what you’d expect

In each of the stores, the investigators purchased only the lowest priced items from the supermarkets’ budget lines.

It turned out that most money was spent at Denner, widely considered to be one of the lowest-priced supermarkets.

The total for the 30 items came to 181.67 francs — more than was spent at the country’s more expensive stores, Migros and Coop, where identical basket of goods cost 170.37 and 167.82 francs, respectively.

(That, in itself, is surprising as well, because Migros typically has lower prices than Coop).

As for the other two supermarkets, these purchases cost 166.59 francs at Aldi and 162.05 at Lidl.

So the difference in price between Migros and Coop versus Aldi and Lidl is minimal. But what is even more surprising is that the cost of groceries at ‘cheap’ Denner is actually highest of the lot, by between 11 and nearly 20 francs.

Migros and Coop performed quite well in the comparison survey because most of the items purchased in those stores came from their budget lines, M-Budget and Prix-Garantie, respectively, both of which were introduced to compete with Aldi and Lidl.

But how important is price? Patrick Krauskopf, a professor of anti-trust law, told RTS: “German, French, English, Spanish and American consumers pay a lot of attention to price. In Switzerland, consumers place more emphasis on quality of service. Price is almost secondary.

“Distributors have realised this and have stopped competing fiercely on price.”

Big versus small

While this particular analysis focused on supermarket chains, another survey, conducted at the end of 2023, looked at prices in small grocery shops.

Common logic has it that it is cheaper to shop in supermarkets than a local corner store, because big retailers purchase products in large quantities, which means lower prices for consumers.

However, prices in some local shops were found to be “up to 30 percent cheaper than Migros and Coop.”

The reason is that in order to cut costs, small grocers may buy their products from the most cost-effective suppliers, a tactic which includes importing some items.

Another reason for lower prices is that unlike major supermarkets, which ‘pretty up’ their stores for better presentation of products, these small retailers are ‘no-frill’ shops. This means little money is invested in décor, so there are no extra costs to pass on to consumers.

READ ALSO: Why it might be cheaper to avoid the big supermarkets in Switzerland

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