Shopping basket test comes back negative

Ground Floor/Sheila O'Flanagan: If you remember, last October I did a comparison of my Spanish shopping basket and my Irish equivalent. On my recent break in Spain I decided to repeat the experiment to see how much prices had gone up in our respective countries.

I expected to find that prices had gone up in both places though, given the savaging my weekly shopping here seems to inflict on my laser card, I had a sneaking suspicion that perhaps shoppers in Ireland were still getting a slightly worse deal. So I brought the old list with me and used the same criteria to price things - branded goods so that I could make exact comparisons, but whenever that wasn't possible I picked the cheapest equivalent back home. I didn't chose own-brand goods in either shop.

The general feeling in Spain at the moment is that the economy is still in poor shape although consumer confidence (remaining low at ­11) is at its best level in a year). Private car sales are still in negative territory though new registrations are increasing.

The manager of one of the seafront bars said that business was significantly down on last summer and that people weren't spending as much. It certainly seemed quieter in June, but once July came round our little seaside town was packed with Madrilenos so maybe they'll spend enough to make up for a more dismal start to the season (though they were all driving two-year -old cars).

Anyway, here's the list again: the only item I couldn't compare was the 200g Brie - my local supermarket here is obviously having some kind of cheese crisis and the only available cheeses were cheddar, a tired block of mozzarella and a splodge of camembert (plenty of revolting cheese strings though). On that basis I decided to keep the Irish price for Brie unchanged.

The price changes, both upwards and downwards, in some goods seem really strange. I guess salmon in Spain might be cheaper now than in October because of the season - if there is such a thing as a salmon season. But why has it gone up so much here? (The prices are based on 300g for the cutlets.)

Weirdly, Irish cheddar has gone up by a cent in both countries, though it's still cheaper in Spain. Pistachio nuts there have halved in price for some reason but the Sanex deodorant, while 4 cent cheaper than in October, is 56 cent more expensive than in Ireland now - yet in October it was actually 50 cent cheaper.

When it came to the nine-volt battery I'd expected it to be more expensive in Spain because I'd thought it was extremely cheap in the first place though I was shocked by an increase of 178 per cent. Then I got home and saw that in Ireland the price has gone up by 77 per cent so the gap wasn't closed as much as I thought. Why have batteries rocketed in price?

The bottom line, though, is that the Spanish shopping list has gone down by 2.2 per cent while the Irish one has gone up by 9.7 per cent.

And most of that is because of the significant difference in price of what would be regarded as the more healthy options - salmon, nuts and olive oil (the litre bottle in Ireland is a special offer of a litre for the price of 750 ml). Toothpaste and deodorant here hasn't gone up as much - maybe during the summer months in a hot climate there's a greater demand for anti-perspirant!

Coffee continues to be much, much cheaper in Spain (the most expensive brand there is about the same as the cheapest here).

Putting things into context, Irish consumer price index last October was running at 4.4 per cent while in Spain it was 4 per cent. In May, the last month for which comparative figures are available, Irish consumer price index had fallen to 3.7 per cent whereas in Spain it had fallen to 2.7 per cent .

Both countries are still running above euro zone averages of 1.9 per cent. Most of the blame for inflation in Ireland is laid at the door of the services sector but my shopping basket has still increased by 9.7 per cent .

Things would have been worse if I'd listened to the Man who wanted me to throw out one of the allegedly healthy pro-biotic type foodstuffs and include something more relevant to him. Wilkinson Sword 3D Protector blades are €5.85 in Spain and €7.90 in Dublin.

I suppose it's unfair to pick on certain products and expect them to tell you anything of significance. But it highlights one thing. Things haven't got any better for the consumer here yet, even if the consumer price index is lower.