Compliance with the food price freeze introduced on the first of February has already been checked by consumer protection in more than 2,500 stores. The number of defaulters remains low, with the exception of 128 shops, the vast majority of traders apply the provisions in a disciplined and comprehensive manner.
The food price cap is therefore working, it has been protecting the Hungarian people for nearly two months from energy prices and price increases caused by the war. Last week, for the first time, the authority imposed fines of more than one million forints, according to a statement sent to our newspaper by the Ministry of Information and Technology (ITM).
Thanks to the food price freeze that came into effect in February, granulated sugar, fine wheat flour, sunflower cooking oil, pork leg, chicken breast, chicken fat, and 2.8 percent UHT cow's milk can be sold no more than at the prices of October 15 of last year.
The measure mainly protects families with children and the elderly. The total weight of the affected products and their substitutes – whose prices are also depressed by the measure – in the consumer basket is 4.1 percent, Márton Nagy, the prime minister's chief economic adviser, wrote in his press release. As it turned out: according to our available data, prices for these products would be almost 18-22 percent higher in the absence of government measures, that is, inflation would be 0.7-0.9 percentage points higher overall. It is important to note that the inflation-reducing effect of the food price cap will take effect from February 2022, emphasized the chief economic adviser. (YES)
Due to the significantly increasing energy prices and inflation throughout Europe, the rise in food prices also affected Hungary at the beginning of the year. The war causes further inflation and price increases.
The government protects the Hungarian people with several measures, in addition to the food price cap, it has introduced a gasoline price cap, an interest rate cap, and maintains the utility reduction. The left does not support any of the measures, the ITM statement reads.
Since the beginning of February, experts from government offices have carried out on-site inspections in 1,558 shops, and discovered omissions in 128 cases. 110 shops used a higher price than the official price, most often cooking oil was offered more expensively than prescribed.
So far, the authority has imposed fines totaling more than HUF 16.5 million in 90 cases. More than half a hundred times, traders have to pay the lowest amount of HUF 50,000 due to minor violations.
However, more than 90 percent of the traders we visited had no problem with complying with the price cap. With a small number of exceptions, customers everywhere can get the food affected by the measure in the right amount and at a cheaper price".
Source: magyarhirlap.hu
Featured image: MH/Péter Török
