Milk, cheese and eggs as well as alcoholic beverages are more expensive in Malta than the EU average, while prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks are almost on a par with the average in the bloc, figures issued by Eurostat show.

The good news for Maltese consumers is that the price of meat products stands at 80 per cent of the EU average. Bread and tobacco are also cheaper than on the continent.

Eurostat, which is the EU’s statistics agency, said that in 2012, the price levels of a comparable basket of food and non-alcoholic beverages was more than twice as high in the most most expensive EU country than in the cheapest one.

Denmark had the highest price level for food and non-alcoholic beverages at 143 per cent of the EU average while prices in Poland were at 61 per cent of the average.

See the figures below.