Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest on December 21, 2021 (AFP / Archives / Attila KISBENEDEK)
Hungary announced Wednesday the capping from the beginning of February of the price of six basic food products, in order to fight against galloping inflation.
“We have decided to intervene to limit the prices of white sugar, wheat flour, sunflower oil, pork thighs, chicken fillets and semi-skimmed milk”, declared the Prime Minister sovereignist Viktor Orban in a video posted on his Facebook page.
“This means that in each store, they will have to return to their level of October 15, 2021,” he said after a meeting of his government, saying he wanted to “protect families”.
The inflation rate reached its highest level in nearly 15 years in November, i.e. 7.4% over one year, propelled by soaring energy prices like everywhere else in Europe.
According to official statistics, the prices of food soared by 6%, those of flour jumping for example by 20% and oil by 27%.
The government had already decided in the autumn to cap the price of fuel, so that the liter does not cost more than 480 forints (1.35 euros) at the pump.
The announcements come as Mr Orban prepares for a close parliamentary election on April 3, facing opposition for the first time united.
Returning to power in 2010, this controversial leader is aiming for a fourth consecutive term.
He will face Peter Marki-Zay, the candidate of an unprecedented alliance of six parties, who saw in this new measure “an admission of failure”, “the observation that the Hungarian economy is in a tragic state”.
“Instead of carrying out a responsible economic policy, the state sets prices to combat rampant inflation,” he reacted on Facebook.
Global food prices soared 28%, on an annual average, for all of 2021 compared to the previous year, according to a statement released last week by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. agriculture (FAO).
The high cost of energy, the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic and increasingly uncertain weather conditions “leave little room for optimism about a return to more stable market conditions” in 2022, she had warned.
© 2022 AFP
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