International Price Comparisons
In February 2000 the Department published a report undertaken by AC Neilson into international price comparisons. The primary aim of this research project was to compare retail price differences of specific items across four countries - the UK, Germany, France and the US - for a diverse range of consumer goods.
The research showed that any exercise attempting to make genuine, like-for-like international price comparisons faces numerous difficulties, particularly when comparing European countries with the US. In practice, the international availability of exactly matched items is actually quite low, with frequent differences across countries in terms of product specifications, pack sizes, packaging and so on.
The research set out to report on 100 items total, but in the end it was only possible to report a total of 56 items, based on the use of over 10,500 price points. In comparing retail prices for the UK against all three countries, the majority of items (45) successfully surveyed proved not to be significantly different. For 8 items the UK was most expensive. For 3 it was least expensive.
Please note that any comments on the methodology of this report should be addressed to Fiona Holdsworth or Linda Simon at AC Nielson.
Branded Goods Survey
The Department in co-operation with the Swedish government, through the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (SMFA), commissioned the Economist Intelligence Unit to survey the price of a range of like-for-like, internationally traded, branded consumer goods across five countries (France, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the US). A report was published in April 2001.
Among the findings, the report shows that:
- prices in the US were significantly cheaper than Europe for many internationally traded global brands; within Europe, Germany and France were cheaper for most of the brands surveyed compared to Sweden and the UK;
- and the UK was the most expensive country in the survey for pre-recorded items and cosmetics.
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