Csaba Lentner: prices have decreased in 53 of the 62 product categories found in the price monitor

By: Trademagazin Date: 2023. 08. 01. 12:16

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Currently, the Economic Competition Authority (GVH) can act most effectively in the area of “blatant overpricing”, the operation of the price monitor has lived up to expectations. However, the competitiveness of the Hungarian food industry is very low – economist Csaba Lentner, professor of the National Public Service University, told Növekedes.hu in an interview published on Tuesday.

The economist told the newspaper that the GVH’s fact-finding activity launched in the spring, followed by the price monitoring system, proved to be an effective tool for curbing inflation.

In the consumer basket, the purchase of food has the largest proportion for most social groups, so the development of food prices greatly influences inflation – he indicated, calling it regrettable that after the introduction of official price regulation at the beginning of 2022, there were a series of merchant overcharges on the food market.

He went on to say that the official food prices introduced by the government at the beginning of last year largely reflected good intentions and social sensitivity, but mainly the larger food chains circumvented the government’s intention and even caused the opposite effect.

In many cases, their inventory of officially priced products did not meet the needs, while a significant margin was placed on similar, so-called substitute products. This is how it happened that, for example, the prices of milk and milk products rose by 80 percent, he added.