Their first index starts in 1914 with base 100 and is in august 2025 at 31103,65. This means that 1BEF in 1914 equals roughly 311BEF in august 2025 or 7,71€.
I didn’t find any numbers for 1912 or 1913. They could have been high (total inflation between 1914 and january 1920 is almost 400% (most probably due to the war). In 1920 alone inflation based on this index was ~13%, in 1921 there was a deflation of 14%, in 1922 a deflation of 1% and in 1923 an inflation of 25%, in 1924 an inflation of 8%) but it’s hard to say.
If you make the (rather big) assumption that inflation in 1912 and 1913 was equal to that of 1924 (the median of the 1920-1924) then you would end up at around 1BEF ~= 8,99€
An avarage salary for a “normal” employee was somewhere between 50 and 100 francs back then. So our salaries now are about 1000 – 1500 times higher. So that steak for instance, would now be about €30 – €45. I think that’s already quite high for a steak in just a modest bistro, no?
Was deze menu de dag van vandaag maar bestaande in euro.
I can’t imagine prices being stable enough for a long enough time to invest in fixed ceramics to showcase your menu.
Één glas wijn even duur als een koffie en steak friet voor de prijs van 5 koffies?
Where is this place ? Would love to go there to feel the vibe !
I’m wondering why they wrote it like “pommes fri^ttes”
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if it wasn’t for the date some people may think its in euros from 2002 instead of 1912 franks. but actually even in 2002 the food wasn’t that cheap .
Adjusting for inflation 1 BEF in 1912 would now be approximately 33BEF
€1 = 40 BEF
We got scammed somewhere along the line man
een koffie de helft van een maaltijd ….
Forget the prices, we lost having fried eel on the menu.
En dan is dat nog in frank hè
Seems fair, haring fillets for 0.01€ 😀
The best approximation of inflation over the period can be found in the numbers of Statbel : https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/open-data/indice-des-prix-la-consommation-et-indice-sante
Their first index starts in 1914 with base 100 and is in august 2025 at 31103,65. This means that 1BEF in 1914 equals roughly 311BEF in august 2025 or 7,71€.
I didn’t find any numbers for 1912 or 1913. They could have been high (total inflation between 1914 and january 1920 is almost 400% (most probably due to the war). In 1920 alone inflation based on this index was ~13%, in 1921 there was a deflation of 14%, in 1922 a deflation of 1% and in 1923 an inflation of 25%, in 1924 an inflation of 8%) but it’s hard to say.
If you make the (rather big) assumption that inflation in 1912 and 1913 was equal to that of 1924 (the median of the 1920-1924) then you would end up at around 1BEF ~= 8,99€
An avarage salary for a “normal” employee was somewhere between 50 and 100 francs back then. So our salaries now are about 1000 – 1500 times higher. So that steak for instance, would now be about €30 – €45. I think that’s already quite high for a steak in just a modest bistro, no?
Was deze menu de dag van vandaag maar bestaande in euro.
I can’t imagine prices being stable enough for a long enough time to invest in fixed ceramics to showcase your menu.
Één glas wijn even duur als een koffie en steak friet voor de prijs van 5 koffies?
Where is this place ? Would love to go there to feel the vibe !
I’m wondering why they wrote it like “pommes fri^ttes”
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