March 29th, 2023, Janice Fernandes
In the past few months, 57% of global consumers across Europe, APAC, North America and MENA say they have noticed an increase in price of health and pharmaceutical products. Now with inflation rates falling, at least a little, in most countries including the US in which categories are consumers expecting to see the biggest price changes in the coming year? And in which direction do they see the price of health foods and wellness products moving?
Contrary to inflation statistics emerging from many markets, data from the latest YouGov survey, conducted across 18 countries, reveals that overall consumers expect costs to increase in most categories over the next twelve months. A negligible proportion of global respondents think that prices will decrease.
Global respondents are most likely to expect the price of groceries to increase a lot in the next 12 months (43%), with another 37% expecting prices to increase a little. The cost of buying a home or renting registers the second-highest proportion of respondents expecting a price increase, with 38% thinking prices will increase a lot and 33% expecting prices to increase a little.
Healthy foods or wellness products also show a high percentage of respondents expecting price increases, with 38% expecting prices to increase a lot and 41% expecting prices to increase a little.
Other categories with a significant percentage of respondents expecting price increases include airline travel (33% a lot and 40% a little), new or used cars (32% a lot and 36% a little), and takeout/restaurant foods (32% a lot and 46% a little).
On the other hand, the category with the lowest percentage of respondents expecting price increases is gym memberships, with only 16% expecting prices to increase a lot and 42% expecting prices to increase a little. This category also has the highest percentage of respondents (36%) expecting costs to remain the same.
France registers the highest percentage of respondents expecting a price increase in the health food or wellness products category - more than half the population (57%) is expecting the cost to increase a lot and 31% are expecting prices to increase a little. Canada follows closely behind, with 54% expecting prices to increase a lot and 34% expecting prices to increase a little.
Nearly half of urban Mexicans are also expecting the cost of healthy foods or wellness products to increase a lot in the next 12 months (47%). However, American consumers are less likely to think prices will increase in this category (42% a lot and 35% a little). In the North American region consumers in the US are most likely to expect costs of wellness products to stay the same – almost two in ten (19%).
In Europe, Great Britain is among the markets where a higher share of consumers are expecting prices of health foods to increase (47% a lot and 40% a little). While Spain (84%) and Italy (80%) also report a higher share of consumers who think costs will go up, consumers in a few of the other markets are not as likely to share the same concerns. Denmark has the lowest percentage of respondents expecting price increases in this region (69%). However, while only 18% are expecting prices to increase a lot, around half of Danish consumers (51%) say it will increase a little.
In the APAC region, consumers in Australia (83%), India (80%) and Singapore (86%) are more likely to say they’re expecting prices of healthy foods or wellness products to increase in the next 12 months. However, the rest of the countries surveyed in this region are not as likely to think the same – Indonesia (68%), China (60%) and Hong Kong (30%). A relatively significant share of consumers in Hong Kong (22%) expect the cost of healthy foods to decrease, the only market in all 18 countries studied in this survey to hold this view.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 512 and 2034 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in February 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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