Two months before the elections in Hungary, Viktor Orban's government wants to tackle food inflation in an unconventional way: The prices of six staple foods are to be frozen. Hungary's central bank had forecast in December that food prices could rise by 6.9% next year, almost double the official 3.5% increase in 2021.
Granulated sugar, wheat flour, sunflower seed oil, 2.8% milk, pork legs and chicken breast/chicken tail must be labeled again from February, just like three months earlier.
Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary:
"This will bring the prices of these six products back to where they were on October 15th last year. This needs to happen in all stores and they will be available at this price starting February 1st."
András Gáspár András, editor-in-chief of the Privátbankár.hu website:
"Looking at the prices of the products in our basket, we see that the price difference between the prices in October and January could be roughly between 4 and 20 percent, but there are also some products, especially chicken breasts, that will be cheaper than in October, according to our latest survey.”
Experts fear that manufacturers may export more of these goods in the future. Consumers will foot the bill, says the head of an economic research institute.
László Molnár, CEO GKI Gazdaságkutató Zrt. Economic Research Institute:
"If they can't get that from the manufacturer in any other way right now, the consumer will pay the additional cost of doing so. All products will be slightly more expensive than they otherwise would have been, but the overall rate of increase is so high that you probably won't." notice once."
Péter Márki-Zay, the Hungarian opposition's joint candidate for prime minister:
"An inflation rate of 7, almost 10 percent now – the manipulated inflation numbers don't reflect how you feel when you walk into the store. There's no way to control that. It's like stopping a flood with a ski pole This initiative is completely unprofessional and an admission of the failure of 12 years of the Orbán government."
Studio Budapest, see below
Leave a comment