Caretaker Prime Minister, employers’ organisations discussed prices of food products

Caretaker Prime Minister, Gulub Donev, on February 9, held a meeting with employers' organisations in the Council of Ministers. The discussion was part of the working formats initiated by the Prime Minister to discuss the pricing of food commodities and possibilities to reduce inflation.

The employers' organisations described the initiation of the meeting as a good signal that the dialogue from the previous term of the caretaker cabinet will continue successfully.

The focus of the meeting was on energy, Recovery and Resilience Plan and EU programmes as well as inflation.

Regarding energy, it was highly appreciated that the measure on compensation for business was extended. The measure is in effect until the end of March and then it should be considered how to be continued.

There has been a discussion about possible differentiated approaches in terms of compensation, but in view of the short term, they will stick to the measure that is already working and is satisfactory for business, said Tsvetan Simeonov of BCCI.

Regarding European programmes, the organisations have asked to speed things up.

With regard to the adoption of the euro, employers have pointed out that funds have been earmarked to acquaint the public with the positive and negative effects. Simeonov said that they were committed to giving publicity to what is good for business and support Bulgaria's entry into the euro zone as soon as possible.

Regarding inflation - employers' organisations approve of the direction of the cabinet, but recommend more publicity for those sectors where there are too large and unexplained differences in the prices, from producers to the final consumer. The Commission for Protection of Competitiveness and the Commission for Protection of Consumers need to be more active because the public believes that there is a cartel on the prices of some goods. The BCCI commends the previous government for curbing corruption.

The Union for Private Economic Enterprise (UPEE) said it would develop proposals on the economic crisis and food prices. There will be working groups to discuss measures. UPEE also thinks the digitalization process is important, for which 3 billion have been earmarked until 2027. Laws on the green deal are also important, said Vaska Baklarova, Chair of UPEE.

Vasil Velev, the chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), said that they have confirmed Bulgaria's entry into the eurozone on 1 January 2024 as a priority of employers' organisations because this will improve the business climate, economic growth and hence people's standard of living. To this end, they are joining forces to fight inflation. But this process must be accelerated in order not to miss the deadlines for joining the eurozone, he said. He pointed out that the compensation for the electricity had led to a growth of industry, and hence a 16% increase in incomes, the highest in the EU.

The BICA also gave full support to the cabinet to reveal bad trading practices in order to accelerate the fall in prices. Velev called for an advance cut in prices now at the expense of profits ahead of the actually expected drop in March and April. He said by shining a light on bad practices and talking to groups of companies with large market share, price falls could be accelerated.

If the administrative impact on prices was good, socialism would have survived, Tsvetan Simeonov said.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the leadership of Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA), Union for Private Economic Enterprise (UPEE), Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (KRIB), as well as members of the caretaker government.

Prices of basic foods in Bulgaria have risen between 20% and 40% in just a year - government takes urgent measures

On Tuesday, a meeting was held at the Council of Ministers, at which, together with caretaker ministers and representatives of various institutions, an analysis of the pricing of food products was carried out. After the meeting, caretaker Prime Minister Gulub Donev said that a mechanism would be introduced to monitor and control the entire supply chain from the producer to the store counters, regardless of whether they are stores of large retail chains or small hops.

The caretaker Prime Minister said that price differences between the producer, through the retailer, and the shops have been found to be in the range of 20 to 30 per cent. PM also pointed out that the state institutions would be uncompromising in their control along the chain - from the producers, through the logistics supply chains, to the shops.

The Prime Minister added that a special website is to be set up to provide citizens with up-to-date information on the subject so that they can more easily compare the price and quality of certain food products.