Do retailers back multinationals over families in Hungary?
Róbert Zsigó, a state secretary at the Culture and Innovation Ministry, criticised retailers’ association OKSZ for “taking the side of multinationals” in a post on Facebook on Thursday.
Flouting a study commissioned by the association that suggested a government-mandated cap on food markups had not achieved its goal, Zsigó said the measure had reduced the prices of 854 of close to 1,000 products by 20.2pc on average.
He added that the government had also reached agreements with banks, telecommunications service providers and pharmaceutical companies on price restrictions, while pensioners would get HUF 30,000 in food vouchers from September.
He said OKSZ had “disregarded the facts” and tried to pressure the government into letting the markups cap expire on 31 August with “sham research”.
He noted that the European Commission had recently launched infringement procedures against Hungary over the markup caps on food and non-food products. “Brussels demands that prices be raised and taxes on multinationals scrapped,” he added.
Addressing Brussels and OKSZ, Zsigó said the government would continue to use “all means” to counter “excessive and unjustified” price increases.” We will protect Hungarian people, families and pensioners, not the profit of multinationals,” he added.
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