The government will prolong the imposition of ceilings on price mark-ups by retailers, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Friday in his daily message to the Fighters’ Club.
“We shall not allow multinational companies to cheat ordinary people”, he declared.
According to the retail trade association OKSZ, the move mainly negatively affects smaller stores, but will also cause billions in losses for larger players.
The cabinet first imposed the ceiling at a 10% price mark-up until May 31 and then ex-tended it to August 31.
Orbán did not provide an end date for the next extension. Tamás Kozák, president of OKSZ, said the group has repeatedly warned of the damaging, fragmenting effects of regulating the margin on the economy.
Inflation, he argued, is not driven by retail margins but by supplier prices, primarily the producers’ and processors’ costs.
The temporary disinflationary impact of the freeze on mark-ups, he added, is fading while its negative consequences are intensifying. The Competition Authority (GVH) accused the OKSZ of attempting to use its still incomplete draft reports for political pressure, directly or via the media.
The GVH stressed that both its investigations and data from its online Price Monitor show that the margin freeze has benefited consumers by lowering prices across most affected products and preventing further in-
creases.
The decision is expected to apply to all sectors currently affected, meaning that the measure will continue to cover not only grocery retailers but also drugstores.