Following the agreement with supermarket chains: Business leaders and ministers oppose a price freeze

A string of business leaders and former and present ministers publicly opposed the imposition of a moratorium on the prise increase of foodstuffs. As of August 3, some of the country's supermarket chains have frozen the price of 10 staple food items for a period of three months, following an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

"Freezing prices carries the risk of even higher prices of these goods once the moratorium expires. It's a short-term solution, that does nothing to address the underlying problem," said Delian Dobrev, Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism on BNR. "The move is a marketing trick ahead of the general elections. The moratorium will keep prices constant for the next three months, but the time will pass quickly," said Nikolai Vasilev, former economic minister.

"Regrettably, more and more ministers are acting as retail executives, mediating trade agreements, negotiating prices, participating in deal negotiations. The state is actually encouraging collusion," said Bojidar Danev, Executive President of the Bulgarian Industrial Association, referring to the price freeze for a group of staple goods. Minister Miroslav Naydenov agreed with supermarket chains. According to Danev, consumers and food producers will only end up suffering. He expects the appearance of even bigger cartels and monopolies on the market. Meanwhile, the price of flour, sunflower oil, sugar and chicken continued to climb, showed the weekly analysis of the Commodity Exchange and Wholesale Markets State Commission.

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