Shops in Hungary Ordered to Keep Larger Quantities of Price-Capped Products
- 3 Jan 2023 9:14 AM
- Hungary Around the Clock
A legal decree published on 28 December states that retailers must stock twice as much of price-capped items as they did before prices were frozen, effective January 13.
It was already seen in the summer that the price freeze does not reduce inflation, but leads to a shortage of goods and destroys hundreds of small shops, whose owners are forced to sell the affected products cheaper than they can buy them for, HVG observes.
However, the new government decree orders retailers to acquire and sell even more of the cheaper goods, to avoid shortages, so now they can also be fined if they do not have twice as much of the goods in stock as on the day the price freeze was announced.
The government imposed fixed prices for flour, sunflower oil, pork, chicken, 2.8% milk and granulated sugar on October 15, 2021.
This was followed by price freezes for potatoes and eggs in November 2022.
The decree orders retailers to make these goods available to customers in such a quantity that it is continuously sufficient to serve customers, and so avoiding product shortages.
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