Price growth was almost entirely driven by #external factors during 2022. However, when those prices began to decline significantly … those declines were not properly transmitted to the domestic economy. In the area of food, domestic factors are reduced to #combined action of traders and, sometimes, of producers/processors, in the direction of price maintenance.
Freezing prices has proven necessary in conditions where markets are quasi-competitive and should, within a reasonable, fixed period, calm such behavior.
However, there is also a domestic segment – labor, whose price has risen in the meantime. According to our recent analysis, the main pressure on the price of labor is the lack of staff in the market, and the second factor is the minimum wage.
We, as Finance Think, were the first since the beginning of the year to point out such tendencies of association in order to maintain prices, and even then we called for the involvement of the Antimonopoly Commission, according to its competences, but to have a proactive approach.
Overall, the design of measures should be systemically designed and targeted.