Hungarian Conservative

The Hungarian price monitoring system, which will possibly be purchased by the Slovak government, is an online database developed by the government and the Hungarian Competition Authority. The system provides consumers with information on the selling prices of individual products.

For the government, the successful fight against inflation is a key issue as it aims to restore the previous trend of continuous wage growth, disrupted by the protracted war and the misguided sanctions.

Government spokesperson Alexandra Szentkirályi noted on public radio that inflation decreased to 17.6 per cent in July, representing a 2.5 per cent decrease compared to the previous month, and a 0.9 per cent decrease in food prices. On an annual basis, the combined effect of multiple government measures has practically cut the inflation of food prices in half, she stressed.

According to the ministry’s statement issued on 4 August, in July the average prices of products in 62 product categories decreased by an average of 7.7 per cent. This reduction was a result of price decreases in 53 product categories within one month. The decrease in food prices had a 0.7 percentage point impact on reducing inflation and a two percentage point impact on reducing food inflation according to the weighting of the shopping basket used by the Central Statistical Office.

To further intensify price competition, the government decided to raise the level of mandatory discounts from ten per cent to at least 15 per cent starting today.

Starting from today, the mandatory discount programme has been launched in grocery stores all over the country to make sure Hungarian families have access to basic foodstuffs at affordable prices.

The minister announced that the government has imposed a ban on 25 agricultural products from Ukraine, including grain, sunflower seeds, cooking oil, and specific meat products until 30 June. He also noted that while according to the European Commission, Ukrainian grain exports should be facilitated to ease the food shortage in Africa, these imports could ‘ruin the Hungarian agricultural market instead’.