Food and beverage prices in Norway fell by 1.9% in 2021, mainly driven by tax changes, according to Virke – the federation of Norwegian enterprise.
Tax changes resulted in the consumer price index (CPI) for food and beverages to reduce by 2.3 percentage points on a twelve-month basis in December.
Strong Competition In The Grocery Market
Jarle Hammerstad, head of industry policy at Virke, said, “Food and non-alcoholic beverages have slowed down the twelve-month growth in consumer prices for several months.
"This is due to strong competition in the grocery market and the fact that the tax on chocolate and sugar products as well as non-alcoholic beverages was removed last year.”
The prices of most non-alcoholic beverages dropped in 2021, with soft drink prices seeing the largest decline of 19.9%
Hammerstad added, “The tax reductions on non-alcoholic beverages and chocolate and sugar products also put less pressure on cross-border trade when the borders reopen.
“It remains to be seen whether it is sufficient to see a decline in cross-border trade in the future.”
Consumer Price Index
In December 2021, the overall consumer price index (CPI) in Norway rose by 5.3% compared with the same period last year due to high electricity prices, according to a report in the online publication, dagligvarehandelen.no.
The annual growth in the consumer price index ended at 3.5% in 2021, while the rise from November to December was 0.7%, the report said.
Norway’s seasonally adjusted volume of retail sales decreased by 3.8% from July to August 2021, data from Statistics Norway showed. It follows a decline of 3.1% from June to July, last year.
