Food in Germany is getting harder to afford compared with the rest of Europe

Does your weekly shop feel more painful than it used to? A new analysis suggests you're not imagining it.

Correctiv, a German non-profit investigative newsroom, has looked at how affordable food is across Europe. Its evaluation shows that the differences between countries are large.

Germany does not come out well. In a ten-year comparison, the country performs particularly badly and has lost a lot of purchasing power when it comes to staple foods, meaning the basic groceries most households buy again and again.

In plain terms: relative to what people earn, everyday food has become a bigger challenge in Germany than in many other European countries.

The analysis looks at the long-term trend rather than a single month's prices. That makes it a useful reference point in the ongoing debate about the cost of living in Germany.