Slovak Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry has accepted the initiative of eight supermarket chains to cap the prices of 400 mainly Slovak foodstuffs for the next three months. The capping applies from Monday 20 March. The aim of the capping is to try to dampen inflation.
According to Agriculture Minister Samuel Vlčan some chains have sent 30, some up to 100 items. The chains will be marked with the valid "Anti-Inflation Guarantee" logo. The products themselves will gradually be labelled with this logo. The range of products with price caps will be different for each of the chains, but it will mainly be food of domestic origin.
"I am very pleased that we have taken the initiative at the ministry with representatives of the eight largest supermarket chains to cap about 400 mainly Slovak food products," Vlčan added.
The aim of the initiative, according to the vice-president of the Slovak Trade Association Filip Kasana, is to protect consumers from price hikes, but without distorting the market through state intervention.
"By signing the declaration on price stability a year ago, the members of the Union of Trade made a commitment to approach food pricing sensitively and not to increase trade margins. We have kept this commitment and food prices have only risen because of increases in the selling prices of our suppliers," Kasana said.
Source: TASR
