Supermarket Price Hikes in Hungary Slammed by Orbán
- 31 Jul 2023 10:07 AM
- Hungary Matters
Supermarkets are acting like speculators by raising prices when there is no basis to do so, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio.
The government’s job is to bring inflation down with measures such as price caps, the interest rate freeze on loans, the price-monitoring platform, mandatory discounts for supermarkets and allowing the SZÉP voucher to be used for food purchases in stores, Orbán said.
“It appears that the process which we call defeating inflation has begun, and the goal of pushing it below 10% by the end of the year is achievable,” he added.
While the country is fighting inflation, especially food price rises, “there are those who aren’t participating in the battle and are indeed taking advantage of the situation”, he said.
Hiking prices of imported food, he added, was “totally unjustified and unacceptable”.
Action would be taken against price-gouging, even if this may cause the government problems with the EU, he said. Brussels, Orbán insisted, was undermining government attempts to “protect the people”, and speculators were “colluding with Brussels bureaucrats”.
He said consumer protection authorities had already levied 3 billion forints (EUR 8m) in fines, adding that action must be intensified.
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