New price caps announced
November 12th, 2022An independent analyst and a pro-government blogger express opposing views on the government’s decision to impose price caps on potatoes and eggs – among other basic products.
On Menedzsment Fórum, Béla Király fears price caps on potatoes and eggs will lead to shortages or lower quality produce. Király writes that farmers and producers are compelled to raise their prices due to soaring inflation and high energy costs, and therefore supermarkets will have to endure losses on products with fixed prices. He also remarks that the newly announced caps will reduce the current 21.1 percent year-on-year inflation by only a mere 0.1-0.2 percentage points. He concludes that such price caps serve political, rather than economic purposes.
On 888.hu, József K. Horváth accuses the opposition parties of using the price caps as a political weapon. The pro-government blogger suggests that those opposition politicians who now call for cutting VAT on food products to help the poor, increased energy prices and taxes while they were in government. The opposition seems to ignore the fact, Horváth adds, that price caps have been introduced throughout Europe. All this, he believes, shows that the opposition will miss no opportunity to level false accusations at the government – rather than trying to help Hungarians survive these difficult times.