04-03-2025
Chocolate, kebabs and tacos: How Norwegians keep track of price rises
You'd have to go to the remote ends of the earth to find someone who hasn't heard the cost of living in Norway is on the higher side.
It is often food prices, in particular, that get top billing whenever how expensive the country is comes up in conversation.
There are several official and very sophisticated ways to track developments in the cost of living.
The country's national data agency Statistics Norway releases monthly consumer price index (a measure of inflation) figures, with these figures used by the central bank to inform monetary policy.
Meanwhile, researchers at the Oslo Metropolitan University have put together the Reference Budget for Consumer Expenditure, which outlines how much different households in Norway should be expected to fork out every month to keep their heads above water.
While plenty of Norwegians also keep track of these metrics, the real way to get them to engage in the cost of living is by tracking the things closest to their hearts.
Tacos
Tacofredag (literally taco Friday) is a Friday-night tradition in plenty of Norwegian households.
Taco Friday owes its origins to a mix of the American community in Stavnager and clever marketing in the 1990s. Nowadays, Norway eats the most Mexican food per capita after Mexico, according to the food importer Haugen Group.
Due to its position as a staple of most Norwegian diets, Statistics Norway has put together an index to show how the cost of the typical Norwegian taco has changed over time.
Based on the cost of 400 grams of minced meat, 350 grams of tortilla chips, 300 grams of sour cream, 22 grams of taco sauce, 200 grams of corn, 200 grams of cheese, 200 grams of cucumber, 200 grams of tomato, 200 grams of lettuce and 25 grams taco seasoning Statistics Norway found that the cost of tacos has risen more than the cost of living generally.
While the consumer price index increased by 2.3 percent between January 2024 and the same month this year, the 'taco index' rose by 2.5 percent. Things were worse for vegetarians as the cost of a veggie taco night has risen 2.8 percent.
Kebabs
Like tacos, Norway puts its own spin on the humble kebab. While the question of whether sweetcorn belongs on a kebab needs to be raised, Norwegians have instead focused on why kebabs have become so expensive – especially in Oslo.
Vink, the lifestyle section of the newspaper Aftenposten, has tried to get to the bottom of the country's soaring kebab prices.
The magazine looked at how kebabs had risen to between 150-200 kroner. It used the example of one kebab shop's prices rising by 85 percent between 2017 and 2024 compared to 26.6 percent for general inflation over the same period. Another shop it spoke to said they'd put up the price of a kebab by 64 percent in recent years.
While Statistics Norway told Vink that the average increase for the key ingredients in a kebab had risen by 38 percent on average, other factors such as rental costs, energy prices and wage costs in the catering industry had all increased overheads for eateries.
Chocolate
Chocolate prices have made national headlines in Norway recently. Newspaper VG tracks the cost of food with its own index and has found that chocolate prices have increased sharply since Christmas.
The going rate for a 200-gram bar of milk chocolate was now anywhere between 50 and 65 kroner, it reported.
The price increases have been linked to poor harvests in Ghana and Ivory Coast, with the two West African countries accounting for more than 60 percent of the world's cocoa production.
Alcohol
Just as infamous as food for being expensive is alcohol. Alcohol in Norway is made expensive due to high taxes and strict regulations.
There are countless guides on where to find cheap beer in Oslo, and most people have their own idea of when the price of a pint becomes unreasonable.
Norwegians like to measure the cost of living when it comes to alcohol by comparing prices with Sweden and duty-free stores at airports.
It has long been typical for those in eastern Norway to head to Sweden for shopping, even if this has slowed down a bit in recent years to a weak Norwegian krone.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of sites and guides on the best deals available at tax-free.
Another way of comparing the cost of living with Norwegians is to just list the cost of a beer or glass of wine in the various countries you've travelled to in the past few years for a more global perspective on how things are developing.
