The data of the European Institute of Statistics, Eurostat, concluded that the citizens of Albania and those of Kosovo spend mostly on food compared to other European states. based on their income.
The newspaper "Monitor" has processed updated data on nominal food costs for 2017.According to these figures, for Albania, nominal food costs accounted in about 31% of gross domestic product (GDP - which measures one-year economy output, and income from work and property). The data included the last two years and in Kosovo this indicator is slightly lower than in Albania, to 29.2 % of GDP. When this indicator also accounts for non-alcoholic beverages, Kosovo passes first with 34.1% of GDP, while for Albania this indicator goes to 31.9% of the GDP.
Compared to the EU average, spending on food in relation to what the economy produces in a year is much higher. For the EU average, this indicator is only 6% of GDP, with the highest in Romania, with 15.8% of GDP and the lowest in Ireland and Luxembourg with 2.7 and 2.6% of the GDP.
Even in relation to other countries in the region, Albanians from Albania and Kosovo use the bulk of the money they have available to feed. For Serbia, this indicator is 15.6% of the GDP and the highest is for Bosnia and Montenegro, respectively about 23-24% of GDP (see the chart). For the candidate and potential candidate countries (excluding Kosovo and Turkey), the average is 19.7%.
Every Albanian spends in one year 1,248 euros, while the EU average is 1800 euros, but we should remind that Albania's per capita income is only 30% of the European average!
In another more detailed indicator, published by Eurostat, the expenditures on bread and cereals in Albania were as high as 4.9% of GDP, still the highest in Europe, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina with 3.1%.
The high consumption of bread and dough is a sign of poverty and low income level that provides a country that is forced to buy expensive foods, because a large part of them are imported (ironically, Albania has the highest share of agriculture in Europe with about 18-20% of GDP of 2%, which is the average of Asia and Europe and about 8% of North Macedonia).
Just after meeting the primary needs of nutrition, the family begins to think about other expenses.