It was stated that the food price freeze would be phased out so that the compulsory promotion would be extended to the range of products concerned.Continue reading
According to the data of the online price monitoring system, the lowest price for eggs per piece in packs of 10 was 63 forints (EUR 0.16) on July 31, but by August 1 it had fallen to 45 forints (EUR 0.11), the Hungarian Competition Authority told Index. This means that the price of eggs has fallen by almost 30 percent in a single day.
The timing cannot be a coincidence, as the government phased out the capped prices on several products on August 1 that have been in place for one and a half years. Meanwhile, the mandatory promotion rate introduced earlier has increased from 10 to 15 percent by August 1 as well. All these measures were introduced by the government to curb inflation, including the introduction of an online price monitoring system on July 1.
Since its launch, the system has contributed to reducing food inflation by more than two percentage points. Of the 62 product categories monitored, the average prices of 53 have fallen, the Hungarian Competition Authority said in response to a request from Index.
It can be seen that there is fierce price competition between retail chains that provide data to the system on a daily basis, the latest example being the significant fall in the price of eggs,
they added.
Photo: Pixabay
According to the authority, this proves that the price monitoring system will continue to “protect Hungarian families from price increases and contribute to the continuous reduction of prices and thus to the disinflation” even after August 1, after the end of the price freeze.
The Competition Authority also underlined that the price monitoring system continues to be widely used. According to the latest figures, the number of unique visitors has already exceeded 750,000, with some 52 million downloads and interactions.
Featured photo via Pixabay