When I came to Sweden on holiday in 2012 from Shanghai, I blew away my local contacts by saying I found Sweden reasonably priced.
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I said that because by comparison to Shanghai, it actually is.
Your rent and house prices are about the same as in Shanghai, and when you go have a beer somewhere, it’s the same price. I pay about 70 to 80 kronor for a pint of Vedette in Stockholm, and it costs 60 RMB in Shanghai. That actually makes Sweden cheaper than China.
I used to buy my stuff at Carrefours in Shanghai. Their prices are exactly the same, almost on the dot, as ICA or COOP or Hemköp here in Sweden. Even the wine costs the same. “My” wine is Argentinian Malbec, and I am finding perfectly good bottles of it in Shanghai for about 70 RMB, and in Sweden for about 80 kronor. To have a restaurant lunch of a quality similar to what it would be like in Sweden, expect to pay 100 RMB in Shanghai, and about one hundred kronor in Sweden for an all-you-can-eat buffet with drinks included. Renting an apartment for 10.000 RMB a month will yield a very similar place as you’d get in Sweden for 10.000 kronor. Very similar prices on the surface.
But what’s probably the killer argument here is the actual buying power you’ve got with the money you earn locally.
Now, that’s where things are beginning to look clearly in favour of Sweden. As a university professor in Shanghai, I would take home about 20.000 RMB a month on a good day. In Sweden, it’s easily double that.
But why are the prices in Sweden the way they are? Well:
- 25% sales tax;
- high salaries at the lower end of the food chain, so anything involving manpower costs heaps.
I have no problem with that. The price increases are not forbidding, and I’d rather pay more and know that the people who do the dirty work are also going home at civilised times, living good lives.
Paying Scandinavian prices is the user fee for living somewhere that doesn’t know poverty.
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