June the 1st, 2025 – Croatian prices vary quite significantly nationwide, with the highest expenses in Zadar County and the lowest in Sisak-Moslavina County.
As Novi list/Nikolina Lucic writes, the residents of Zadar County have the highest expenses for products purchased in retail chains according to a study by the Economic Institute, “The Same Prices for Everyone? What New Data on Stores Across Croatia Tells Us” carried out by Marina Tkalec and Ivan Žilić. That study shows how despite often expressed through a single indicator such as the consumer price index, inflation actually differs between households. This of couse depends on the structure of their consumption and the prices they pay.
croatian prices nationwide are extremely varied
In their analysis of price inequality, they focused on differences in consumer baskets. Given that price heterogeneity can be seen in more depth, they investigated how precisely regional economic differences are expressed. It can be clearly seen that Croatian prices vary nationwide. Zagreb as an economic and administrative centre, then we come to the tourist-oriented coastline, and then to the interior, which lags significantly behind in terms of GDP per capita. The study focused on studying 24 products that make up almost 13 percent of the average Coatian consumer basket, and can be easily purchased in all parts of the country.
Kefir from one manufacturer sold in a one-kilogram package was sold in 738 physical stores on May the 15th, 2025, with a total of 11 different prices. The minimum price of 2.09 euros was upheld by 152 stores, the most common price of 2.52 euros was charged by 198 stores, while the maximum price of 3.19 euros was requested by four stores. This alone showcases the large variation of Croatian prices nationwide.
On average, it was being sold the cheapest in Buzet in Istria County at 2.09 euros. It was the most expensive in Gornji Kneginec in Varaždin County, where it was priced at 2.75 euros. The municipality of Čavle appears as the cheapest option five times, and Baška and Belišće appear in the same sense three times each.
islands are a story of their own
On the other hand, the municipality of Sali in Zadar County is the most expensive for four of the observed products, and Komiža and Vrsar for three. The mayor of the Sali Municipality, Zoran Morović, also commented on the situation, announcing the arrival of another retail chain on the island. He is convinced that will bring balance to retail competition and regulate the current prices on the island.
“Transport to the island increases the final price of the product, but it’s obvious that a certain percentage is being exploited. Dugi otok is offshore, but transport to us certainly doesn’t raise the final cost to such a level that the prices on the island would be among the highest in the entire country. A certain percentage of the price certainly goes to exploiting the opportunity and position in which the retail chains on the island are currently located, and this is to their advantage,” believes Morović.
Mathematically, one could expect that average Croatian prices nationwide are more expensive on the coast, and especially on the islands. The delivery of goods is more expensive due to transport costs to the islands. However, due to their location, the islands find themselves in yet another negative situation, and that’s the lack of market diversity among island retail chains. This gives those present on the islands a kind of monopoly over the market, and thus the freedom to set higher prices for all kinds of goods.
comparisons with the cheapest county – sisak-moslavina
In order to provide a more comprehensive insight into the relative price level at the county level, the authors compared the average Croatian prices for all items that appear in all counties nationwide. In total, there are 24,769 unique products, which represents 21.3 percent of the total number of unique products at the level of the country.
For each county, they calculated the average price of products that appear in them all. The results are standardised, showing just how much more a particular county is more expensive than the cheapest, Sisak-Moslavina County.
adriatic counties take the (expensive) cake
As of May the 15th, 2025, the most expensive counties, based on a sample of products appearing in all counties, were Zadar, Dubrovnik-Neretva and Istria counties. On average, they were 7.9 percent, 7.4 percent and 5.8 more expensive than Sisak-Moslavina. The six most expensive counties also included Šibenik-Knin County, 5.7 percent more expensive than Sisak-Moslavina on average, Split-Dalmatia County, 5.1 percent more expensive than Sisak-Moslavina. on average. Then we come to the City of Zagreb, which is five percent more expensive than Sisak-Moslavina on average.
In addition to Sisak-Moslavina, the cheapest counties when looking at Croatian prices nationwide were Koprivnica-Križevci County, which was 0.8 percent more expensive on average than Sisak-Moslavina, Požega-Slavonia County, 1.7 percent more expensive on average, Bjelovar-Bilogora County, 1.7 percent more expensive on average, and Virovitica-Podravina County, 2.1 percent more expensive on average.
These results were additionally checked with a regression model that controls for the spatial composition of retail chains. This is because it is possible that certain retail chains are more prevalent in the Adriatic counties. The results are very similar, with Zadar, Istria, and Dubrovnik-Neretva counties as the most expensive in a relative sense.
The results show that the 15 of the most relatively expensive municipalities and towns are Sali, Starigrad, Vis, Šestanovac, Okrug, Vir, Privlaka in Zadar County, Vrsar, Tkon, Gornji Kneginec, Vela Luka, Hvar, Vrsi, Stari Grad and Tisno.
Out of a total of 556 local government units, 182 of them have a physical store with a published price list. Although this is a relatively low coverage, 76.6 percent of the Croatian population lives in municipalities and cities where there is a store with a published price list.
price transparency
It was concluded that the proper public disclosure of prices can affect both sides of the market – supply and demand. Retailers can adjust their prices because they know that they are easily comparable, and consumers, thanks to greater availability of information, can more easily compare and choose where to shop.
“This initiative represents a significant step forward in the direction of greater market transparency and data availability. It also opens up numerous opportunities for analysis, monitoring and better understanding of Croatian prices nationwide for consumers, researchers, institutions and the business sector. For the first time, this creates public infrastructure for price monitoring in almost real time, which is especially important in conditions of inflationary pressures.
