Why is the cost of living in France so high?

[Singledad711]

Hi! I've been living in France for several years now and whilst the cost of living has always been quite high, now the cost of living has gone up here in France compared to 10 years ago ( or even 5 years ago]

According to this map, France is the 9th most expensive country in Europe ( well not the 9th but actually the 6th] since Jersey and Guernsey are part of the UK so they don't count as they're not really countries

And to me Luxembourg is a tnig insignificant country that isn't even visible on a map ( like Liechenstein and Andorra for example]

So anyway France has overtaken the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and Sweden!

It's quite surprising that France has become more expensive than the latter 2 who are Scandinavian countries which have always been expensive i.e Finland & Sweden

Considering that the average wages in France is around 1500€-1800€ then it doesn't justify the high cost of living in France, which has become the 6th most expensive country in Europe

There's only 5 countries more expensive than France in Europe now in 2023: Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Ireland

And 2 of those are islands i.e Ireland & Iceland and not major mainland countries like Russia or Germany for example

How come the cost of living in France has risen? Why is the cost of living in France so high when the wages are relatively low compared to other European countries where the wages are higher & the cost of living is lower: Germany for example?

Cost of Living Index by Country 2023 Mid-Year (numbeo.com)

I have no idea but did notice on a recent French holiday how much more expensive it was. We English constantly complain about food prices but actually think ours is much cheaper that lots of places in Europe and America.

We've just come back from the South of France and had noticed the same. Even some of the local wines were a very similar price there, to the price we pay for exactly the same wines in the UK.

The food quality is much better in France x

It’s bloody expensive and I say that as
somebody who was brought up in Brussels which was, at the time really expensive.

I live in France too.

The war obviously had a big impact on food prices. There are still signs up in my local Migros about the war impacting sunflower oil stock and that the normal brands aren’t in stock.

Other than a slight increase in electricity prices and petrol I haven’t noticed many more price increases.

Ssssh. Anywhere in Europe is a Utopia compared to the UK on here! Don’t go pointing out pesky things like the cost of living, or anything that ruins the narrative.

I'm thinking the same thing as I sit here in a cafe in St. Remy drinking an overpriced (though delicious!) cafe crème!

Guernsey and Jersey aren't part of the UK!

Never sure why these surveys say Ireland is do expensive, seems reasonable when I've been there, mind you do did france a few weeks ago

The food quality is much better in France- than where? All the other countries that are cheaper? France is also importing foods from Spain for example, so does Spain export different salad items grown to France that are better quality than to German for example?

And to me Luxembourg is a tnig insignificant country that isn't even visible on a map ( like Liechenstein and Andorra for example]
🙄

I am not sure about these indexes. It has Switzerland as the second most expensive country. In fact, if you earn a local salary, it's pretty much the cheapest I've ever lived in. Portugal and the UK always came across as much more expensive with local salaries being pretty low. France was somewhere in the middle.

If you're on holiday in France, or even if you've emigrated for the lifestyle, you are very probably consuming plates of wonder, sourced from the picturesque market and that marvellous baker you found when you were there before ... as you should, but people who live that way in England have fucking astronomical grocery bills.

Here's Carrefour's weekly essentials. Beats my supermarket shopping hands down, I'd say.

https://www.carrefour.fr/boutique/panier-essentiel-et-nutrition

France has the highest crime rate in Europe too

Just don’t come to New Zealand! It’s horrendous.

French supermarkets have always been expensive. I was shocked to see a 2 pack of my roll on deodorant here on offer for 8 Euros! At home I was moaning it has just gone up from £1 each to £1.25!

My exact thought when I saw the post 🤣🤣

No, nor Isle of Man, they are crown dependencies, Wikipedia explains it all.

All the things on the list you linked are tinned/dried/high sugar and low nutrition, and super cheap cleaning products.

Most of us don't eat that type of food. Not through choice anyway.

War hasn't helped globally so has pushed up prices of some items for everyone regardless of anything else. France was quite heavily reliant of russian fuel

Post COVID recovery too.

Brexit has had an impact on prices for EU countries their imports and experts to Britain are more expensive

No idea, but we're in Austria at the moment and I'm horrified by the price of food at the local supermarket. Fresh veg is pretty much double the cost of the UK.

The most expensive place I have been is Iceland, we made sure we had a large Hotel breakfast to set us up for the day

Interesting, we are just back from Spain and I was very impressed by how cheap everything was in the supermarkets and the general home deco/kitchen equipment type shops.

Haha exactly. Reality here is we have had cheaper food than the majority of countries for many years mainly by exploiting cheap labour, even with ours rising its still cheaper than many places.