Snacks and Candy More Expensive in 2003

German sweet-tooths and coach potatoes had to pay more for munchies in 2003. A chocolate bar, for example was 7.2 percent more expensive last year than in the previous year. According to the Federal Office for Statistics in Wiesbaden, an increase in the price of natural resources, primarily oil, was to blame for an overall rise in the cost of candy and chips. Chocolate lovers and junk food fans can also expect to have to reach a little deeper in their pockets in 2004, says the German Federation of Sweet Manufacturers. The increase in the cost of production of glucose and the poor grain harvest after last year’s heat wave are largely to blame for the rise in the cost of sweet and salty snacks.