Róbert Zsigó: the prices of foods affected by the margin freeze decreased by an average of 17.7 percent

He added that the measure reduced the prices of 874 out of a thousand products, based on Tuesday morning’s data. Among them, there are 27 products whose prices have decreased by almost half, he explained.

Róbert Zsigó recalled that the essence of the margin freeze covering 30 product categories is that retail chains cannot add a margin of more than 10 percent to the purchase price, he indicated.

It looks like the measure is working, retail chains are broadly complying with the regulations, he said, but he also mentioned as an example that the prices of approximately 70 products have increased, and these will be examined.

The government expects that the effect of the measure will be demonstrable in numbers in the April inflation data. A decision will be made at the end of May on whether this or other measures are still needed.

It was important to intervene to protect families and pensioners from having to pay unjustified and excessive food prices, he said.