New government system fundamentally changes shopping in Hungary from July
The government announced this March that it would launch an online price monitoring system to fight against soaring inflation. The scheme details were published in a government decree yesterday. The inflation in Hungary is still at the top in the European Union at 25.6 percent. Latvia comes after Hungary, but the rate is much lower there, “only” 17.2 percent.
According to telex.hu, the government created a separate working group to establish a so called online price-monitoring system against inflation. The scheme will kick off on 1 July in Hungary, and big supermarket chains are its targets like Aldi, Lidl, Spar or Penny. According to the new regulation, supermarkets that had a net income above HUF 100 billion (EUR 270 million) in 2022 would be subject of compulsory data reports.
Based on the government’s decree, the online price monitoring system will follow the daily and customer loyalty prices of the target products at each supermarket. First, the database will contain the prices of 60 target product categories. That will include pork leg, white bread, 1.5 percent ESL milk, Trappista cheese, idared apples, sausages, margarine, butter, and spaghetti. They will not consider reduced prices because the product’s shorter than 72h expiration date.
Shopping changes in Hungary: you will compare prices online first
Each company will upload all relevant prices by the end of the preceding day. Furthermore, stores will have to submit the target product prices back a year until August. Moreover, stores not subject to the scheme may join the initiative voluntarily.
The Hungarian Competition Authority will operate the database, telex.hu wrote. The government aims to provide an online database for each customer, allowing them to compare prices transparently. As a result, the cabinet hopes they can baulk overpricing and reveal how retailers are pricing. Moreover, they would like to boost competition in the market. As a result, prices may start to decrease in Hungary.
The government calculates a quickly decreasing inflation during the summer. By the end of the year, they calculate with a one-digit rate only. Telex wrote that in March, Hungary’s inflation reached 25.2 percent. That rate was 42.6 percent concerning food compared with last March. Meanwhile, household energy prices rose by 43.1 percent.
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9 Comments
Government fixing of prices reduces competition amongst retailers. Madness.
Glad to see that targeted
chains are non locally owned…
Waste of money. They want lower prices-they can lower the VAT on food, electricity, fuel, gas, water….on most of them the VAT is 27%. The problem is the government-not the retail chains.
The retail chains will use this data base to match prices-what can I say….the VIKTATOR is a genius.
I’m a huge believer in the laissez-faire free-market system but since there is already so, so, so much interference by governments–foreign and domestic–in factors affecting the operation of the food market, it stands to reason that government intervention in the food market is needed, too. Instead of arguing about that, why don’t we take a closer look into what has been causing this sudden rampant inflation? It didn’t happen by some unforeseeable chance, that’s for sure. It was very much through gross negligence and at times even by design, aimed at transferring the global wealth and creating a new world order. They’ve been pretty successful so far, and the masses are still asleep.
I consider this as a propaganda for the government. “Working for the welfare of the mases”, it is a lie… the regulated items will go down in price, but so many others will increase, at the end you pay the same. Government is not contributing to your quality of life or even for your pocket, it is working against it.
Let’s try. Maybe will work.Diesel was expensive and now is cheap and the food prices are still high.
Also Forint is strong ,around 370/Euro,was even 430FT if I remember good,so if we look at the price of milk 400FT that is 1.10euro.
Salaries are increased by strong Forint but from other side food becomes too expensive.
I’m intrigued by this system. Will it decrease prices or will retailers catch up with others? Only time will tell. There’s a similar system in Walmart in the US where they will match the price of products if they can be found somewhere else cheaper. If I remember well, it’s an app called Price Match?
@Michael Steiner: wow are you delusional? The price caps introduced by your favorite person in the world drove up the inflation and price rise. It’s online and verified by official data. Maybe you should read news not controlled by Fidesz.
@John: Forint strengthening is only good to buy foreign currencies. It doesn’t change anything for here; prices are still high. We still lose money.
The people say its the outside world thats why the prices are higher. No the prices gave been high since 2016 if u cant see it ,the one and only victor is the reason . rich takecare if the rich,too many people are brainwash in Ungary.
So stand up for what us right lower the price.
Usually when this happens, many products disappear from supermarket shelves and prices remain high.