Last year, Serbia’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita stood at 52 per cent of the European Union average. It remained unchanged compared to the previous year, while over the past decade, since 2015, we have closed the gap to the average from 40 to 52 per cent. On the other hand, prices in Serbia have caught up with European standards much more rapidly.
Although this appears to be a significant advancement in GDP per capita, a look at some of our neighbouring and similar countries reveals that we have actually lagged behind over the last ten years.
For instance, Romania moved from 56 per cent of the EU average in 2015 to 78 per cent in 2025. Croatia rose from 61 per cent to 78 per cent over the same period, and Bulgaria climbed from 49 to 68 per cent.
Our trajectory is shared by other countries in the region that have not joined the EU. Over the 10-year period, Montenegro went from 42 to 54 per cent, and Albania from 30 to 43 per cent, while North Macedonia (from 39 to 43 per cent) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (from 31 to a mere 36 per cent) can comfortably be described as having stagnated compared to the rest of Europe.
Naturally, some countries also lost their relative standing; Greece, for example, fell from 69 to 68 per cent over the decade, and almost all of the richest European countries saw their average GDP per capita decrease, which is logical.
It is logical because less developed countries are expected to grow faster, if for no other reason than due to a low statistical baseline.
However, Eurostat, the European statistical agency, also tracks Actual Individual Consumption (AIC), which is meant to offer a slightly better description of the material situation of households.
According to this indicator, we fare only marginally better, with our consumption hovering at around 57 per cent of the EU average. Nevertheless, the relative growth of consumption is considerably slower, given that since 2015 we have progressed by a mere eight percentage points relative to the EU average.
By comparison, Montenegro progressed by 14 points, Bulgaria by 22 points, Croatia by 16, and Romania by as many as 27 percentage points.
Eurostat goes a step further in monitoring the well-being of European households by comparing the relative prices of goods and services in Europe. In terms of prices, we are considerably closer to the EU than we are in terms of income.
Thus, our prices stand at 62.5 per cent of the EU average. Prices are a whole 10 percentage points higher relative to the European average than GDP per capita is, also relative to the EU average. While we may be lagging behind in GDP, when it comes to overall price levels, we are ahead of Bulgaria, Romania, and Montenegro, and it goes without saying that we are significantly more expensive than Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.
Data on the ratio of prices of goods and services in Serbia compared to European countries raise many questions. For example, how does a poor (by GDP per capita standards), agricultural country have food prices almost at the level of the EU average, even though its GDP per capita is barely above half of that average?
How and why have consumer electronics prices been among the highest in Europe for years, and why do we pay more for telecommunication services than most European countries whose households have much higher incomes?
Food prices
In 2025, the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages in Serbia continued to close in on the European average, reaching 97 per cent of that average. What economic forces have led to average food prices in Serbia being 18 per cent higher than in Romania? Disposable income certainly did not drive this.
As many as 11 European countries had cheaper food and non-alcoholic beverages than Serbia, including Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Spain (whose GDP per capita stands at 92 per cent of the EU average).
Some might argue that this is a consequence of the high subsidies the EU grants to its agricultural producers, but why then do Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and ultimately North Macedonia – where food prices are 25 per cent below the EU average – have cheaper food than Serbia?
Looking at individual categories, meat prices in Serbia are 14 per cent lower than the EU average, and residents of 12 European countries enjoy cheaper meat than our citizens, mostly encompassing countries of the former Eastern Bloc, from the Baltics, through Poland, Romania, and Hungary, to the states of the former Yugoslavia.
On the other hand, we pay significantly more for milk than the European average. Last year, the price of milk in Serbia was 7.2 per cent higher than the EU average. Milk in our shops was more expensive than in Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia, France, Poland, and the Czech Republic, as well as Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia.
Concurrently, dairy farmers in Serbia protested last year over low purchase prices and excessive imports of milk and dairy products.
For fruit and vegetables, Serbia is a mere four per cent below average EU prices. At these prices, we were on par with Hungary, Portugal, Cyprus, and virtually Denmark.
Conversely, North Macedonia stands at just 52.4 per cent of the EU average, and Romania at 65.5 per cent, meaning they are 35 per cent cheaper than the EU average and 30 per cent cheaper than us.
Furthermore, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria, Poland, the Netherlands… all have cheaper fruit and vegetables than Serbia. It is simply unbelievable that the spring frost last year supposedly hit only us.
Just two years prior, fruit and vegetable prices were at 81.4 per cent of the EU average.
It is customary for alcohol and tobacco to be expensive in developed countries and cheap in poor countries. Eurostat data reflects this.
In North Macedonia, average prices for alcoholic beverages and tobacco are 41.5 per cent below the EU average, Turkey is at a similar level, while Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Bulgaria are between 30 and 35 per cent cheaper than the average. In Serbia, the prices of these products are 27.5 per cent cheaper than the EU average.
On the other end of the scale, they are the most expensive in Europe in Iceland (130 per cent above the average), Norway (103 per cent), and Ireland (102 per cent).
Clothing and footwear
The prices of clothing and footwear in Serbia have recorded high relative growth over the last three years. While we stood at 87.1 per cent of the EU average in 2023, we reached 94.1 per cent last year, meaning we dress more expensively on average than the Dutch or the Portuguese, let alone Spain, Romania, or Hungary. As a rule, we are the most expensive in the region among the non-EU countries.
Utilities
An area where we remain among the cheapest in Europe is energy and utilities.
Namely, average prices for housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels in Serbia last year stood at just 38.8 per cent of the European average. Furthermore, over a two-year period, we became relatively more expensive compared to the EU average by only about one percentage point.
Here, only Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Turkey are cheaper than Serbia. This area appears to display the widest price disparity between countries. Thus, the cheapest is Bosnia and Herzegovina at 29.5 per cent of the average, while the most expensive is Switzerland at 213.1 per cent of the average – more than twice as expensive as the average, which is represented by Estonia in this sector.
If housing is excluded, electricity, gas, and other fuels alone (excluding petroleum products) sit at half the European average. Only Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, and Turkey have cheaper energy than Serbia in Europe.
Slightly more expensive than us were Albania and North Macedonia, and, surprisingly at first glance, Norway.
Last year, Germany was the most expensive, with energy 22.4 per cent pricier than the EU average.
Compared to 2023, energy in Serbia grew more expensive at a faster rate than the European average by 3.4 percentage points.
Fuel
When it comes to transport fuel – petrol and diesel – prices in Serbia last year were close to the EU average. Fuel in Serbia was only about four per cent cheaper than the EU average. By comparison, two years earlier, in 2023, that difference was nine per cent. Last year, residents of 20 European countries (both EU and non-EU) paid less for fuel on average, while 14 paid more for fuel than residents of Serbia.
The difference in the average price of fuel between Serbia and the cheapest country, Turkey, was 29 per cent, and compared to North Macedonia, fuel here was 24 per cent more expensive. All our other neighbours, except Albania, paid less for fuel last year. The most expensive fuel in 2025 was paid for by Icelanders, at 28.4 per cent above the EU average.
Electronics and household appliances
Six years ago, the Commission for Protection of Competition in Serbia initiated a proceeding to investigate competition in the consumer electronics market. One of the catalysts was that in 2019, according to Eurostat data, prices were 13 per cent higher than the EU average and significantly higher than, say, in Hungary, where VAT was higher.
Some minimal fines followed, but the extent of their effectiveness is best shown by Eurostat data for last year. Namely, consumer electronics, computers, audio, and video equipment in Serbia are exactly 13 per cent more expensive than the EU average – the same as six years ago. Moreover, in 2023, electronics were as much as 18.5 per cent more expensive than the EU average.
In fact, on average, the only people in Europe who pay more for electronics are the Danes (13.6 per cent above the average), the French (16.5 per cent), the Turks (18 per cent), and Iceland, at a staggering 37 per cent.
As for household appliances and white goods, we pay “only” three per cent more than the EU average on average, which is about eight per cent more expensive than the Dutch and around ten or more per cent higher than in the Baltic states.
Serbia is also the most expensive in the region regarding furniture, standing at 94.3 per cent of the EU average.
Perhaps it is time to remind ourselves that Serbia’s GDP per capita is at 52 per cent of the EU average.
We paid 20 per cent less for transport services than the EU average, but also 20 per cent more than Hungarians or Albanians.
In another increasingly vital area of household budgets, Serbian citizens pay more for services than most of their European counterparts. As with other products and services, this may have to do with competition, or the lack thereof.
Communications
Thus, for communications, which primarily comprises the services of telecommunication operators, we paid an average of 6.1 per cent more than the average European in 2025. These services are the most expensive in the developed countries of Northern and Western Europe, peaking in Belgium at 46.5 per cent above the EU average.
On the other hand, Romanians pay 44 per cent less than the EU average, and it is interesting to note that the prices of these services in Italy are 11 per cent below the European average.
Conversely, restaurants and hotels in Serbia are around 35 per cent cheaper than the EU average, with a similar situation observed across the region. The cheapest are Albania, which is 47 per cent cheaper, and Bulgaria, at 45 per cent cheaper than the EU average.
(Danas, 08.07.2026)