Food and beverages in Malta cost 17 per cent less than the European Union average, according to figures released by Eurostat yesterday, which also places Malta as the 10th-cheapest EU member state for such commodities in 2006.

Meat was recorded as the cheapest food by comparison with Malta’s fellow EU members, priced at 69 per cent of the EU average, followed by bread and cereals at 76 per cent and tobacco at 84 per cent.

Maltese prices for alcoholic beverages were 17 per cent over the EU average, while prices for the milk, cheese and egg basket of products were 11 per cent over.

The countries recording overall lower costs than Malta were all Eastern European countries, with Bulgaria being the overall cheapest EU member state at 56 per cent of the EU average, followed by Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. Fellow island and EU10 state Cyprus was seven per cent over the EU27 average.

At the other end of the scale were the western European countries with the highest prices being found in Denmark, Ireland, Finland and Sweden at respective percentages over the EU average of 42, 25, 20 and 19 per cent.

The highest prices for alcohol were in Ireland, at 82 per cent over the EU average, Finland (70 per cent), the UK (52 per cent) and Sweden (45 per cent), while the cheapest member states in which to become inebriated were Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania at 69, 72, 77 and 79 per cent of the EU average.

A wide disparity exists in tobacco products, with prices ranging from 205 per cent of the EU average in the UK to just 28 per cent of the average in Latvia.