Official: New Supermarket Profit Margin Cap Reduces Prices 16% on Average
- 19 Mar 2025 7:02 AM
A 10pc government-mandated limit on markups at supermarket chains has cut the prices of affected products by 16pc on average, National Economy Minister Marton Nagy said at a press conference on Tuesday, a day after the measure came into effect.
Nagy noted that the cap, rolled out to bring down food price inflation, applied to around 1,000 products in 30 categories.
The scale of the resulting price reduction exceeded the government's expectations, he added.
He noted that the prices of some of the dairy products under the cap, such as milk, joghurt, sour cream and cottage cheese, had dropped by over 50pc.
Nagy warned that the government would apply regulatory measures to suppliers, too, if they didn't lock in their prices voluntarily.
He said prices of around 760 of the 1,000 products affected had dropped, while the prices of 70 had risen, likely because they were earlier on sale or due to data errors.
The government will decide at the end of May, ahead of the expiration of the measure, whether to continue it or take further steps to bring down food prices, he said.
Nagy assured shoppers that store inventories of the affected products, about one-third of supermarkets' food offering, would be sufficient to meet consumer demand.
Profit margin cap reduces some food prices as much as 40pc
A 10pc cap on markups on some food products at supermarkets in force from Monday has reduced prices by 10pc to 30pc or even as much as 40pc, the spokesman for the National Economy Ministry said in a video message.
Demonstrating the impact of the government measure to bring down food price inflation, Andre Paloc showed the price of a litre of milk had dropped from HUF 639 to HUF 372.
Also, the price of a container of sour cream had dropped from HUF 959 to HUF 433 and the price of ten medium-sized eggs was reduced from HUF 1,019 to HUF 973.
"The measure is working, with price differences tangible on the first day already," he added.
Source:
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.
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