Hungarian government is gambling with the price caps – are they going to win?

Almost everyone agreed that the measures are beyond the planned time frame and are not sustainable at all. But still, the price caps remain despite their inarguably counterproductive effects.

The price caps have been extended for three more months at least. According to Péter Virovácz, senior analyst at ING, the government is planning to lift the price cap when it is certain that it will not result in an immediate inflationary and budgetary shock, wrote HVG.

“The government played roulette and put everything on the black, the oil”, he said. If everything goes as they hope, it could save Hungarians from paying the current high prices of the global market.

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The government is waiting for the global market prices to catch up with the price caps, which they calculate to occur around the new expiration date, 31 December. This way, consumers will not be burdened by drastic gas prices ad the inflation rate will likely remain under 20 percent as well.