In Prague, an Israeli columnist finds cheap prices and a painful comparison with Israel

After a weekend trip to Prague with his partner two weeks ago, the writer said he returned impressed by Czech hospitality and angered by the cost of living in Israel. He recalled landing in the Czech capital after a three and a half hour flight and thinking of the protest song "Shir SheChalamti Al Prague" by Shalom Hanoch, performed by Arik Einstein, but said the trip was not about festival nostalgia.

The core of his visit, he wrote, was a comparison of everyday prices. In Prague, he said, costs were lower than in Israel almost across the board, including housing, transportation, food, restaurants and culture. He cited a Thai restaurant meal with two main courses, side dishes and drinks that cost 65 shekels.

He said supermarket food prices were about 30% lower than in Israel, and public transport, by metro or trolleybus, cost 39 Czech koruna per trip, or roughly 6 shekels. The same pattern, he wrote, applied to real estate, hotels, toys, toiletries and cultural events.

By his account, Israel's prices are about 40% above the OECD average, despite the fact that the shekel has strengthened 20% against the dollar over the past year, which should have helped lower import costs. He argued that prices are not falling mainly because of a lack of competition among importers, who often receive exclusive rights to bring in products, and because of intermediary markups.