Hungarian govt extends price cap on fuel and staple food

Budapest, April 28 The Hungarian government will extend the price caps on fuel and staple food until July 1, Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced on his Facebook page following a government meeting.

"Today we had to decide what to do (about the price caps), we decided to extend our price control measures in both cases, so both the price of fuel and the price of selected food products will remain unchanged until July 1," Orban said on Wednesday.

He added that fuel prices and petrol prices were rising across Europe due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Xinhua news agency reported.

"In Hungary, the government is doing everything in its power to protect families from the consequences of rising prices," he said.

On January 12, the Prime Minister announced that the prices of granulated sugar, wheat flour, sunflower oil, pork thighs, chicken breast and 2.8 per cent milk would be limited from February 1 to May 1, 2022 due to high inflation. The prices of designated products in all stores were brought back to the level in October 2021.

The government also fixed the price of petrol and diesel per litre at 480 forints ($1.33) on November 15, 2021, and then extended the price cap from February 15 for three months until mid-May.

According to the latest official data, the inflation rate in Hungary stood at 8.5 per cent in March, well over the 3 per cent target set by the Hungarian National Bank (MNB). The bank originally forecast a 7.5-9.8 per cent inflation rate for this year. (1 Hungarian forint = $0.0028).

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