Economy ministry: Sausages and milk grow expensive due to public bus fares
Officials from the Ministry of Economy explain why Belarusian vegetables are more expensive than in Europe and promise to deal with the monopoly of Beltelecom. Inflation in Belarus has grown by 4 percent over the past five months, Ihar Famin, director of the pricing policy department at the Ministry of Economy, told reporters. The prices of vegetables and fruits have hiked the most, he said. "We are observing a stable slight price growth of vegetables and fruits. There has been a slight increase in the costs of dairy products, beef, pork, sausages".
What the most interesting is that the official links the growth of prices for vegetables, fruits, dairy products and milk with the growing fares on the public transport.
Journalists were interested whether the high public transport fares were to blame for high prices of Belarus-grown tomatos, cucumbers and potatos. It turned out the reasons for that should be sought in the skies and within the Russian energy giant Gazprom. "In Spain, the number of sunny days is close to the number of days in the year. In Belarus, we have six months of the heating season when it is cold. The Belarusian produce is grown in green houses, beginning from April. They have to incur costs associated with heating. They need money for investments, which they also include into the cost of their produce.
In her turn, Iryna Baryshnikava, the head of the consumer rights protection department at the Ministry of Trade, said the industry uses sales in order to make foodstuff costs as attractive as possible. "Over the past five months, 6700 sales took place across the country. The goods worth of 49.4 billion rubels were sold out", said she.
Besides, she reminded that all internet-based shops should register with the trade register by July 1. Today, there are over 3000 e-shops, but only a half of them has registered so far.
The Ministry of Economy also monitors the market in order to prevent monopolies from setting overpriced costs for their goods. Beltelecom is one of the monopolies on the Belarusian market. And, since the presidential decree on internet regulation has come into effect, the position of this monopoly on the internet services market concerns independent providers.
Ihar Famin promised to deal with this monopoly.
Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk
What the most interesting is that the official links the growth of prices for vegetables, fruits, dairy products and milk with the growing fares on the public transport.
Journalists were interested whether the high public transport fares were to blame for high prices of Belarus-grown tomatos, cucumbers and potatos. It turned out the reasons for that should be sought in the skies and within the Russian energy giant Gazprom. "In Spain, the number of sunny days is close to the number of days in the year. In Belarus, we have six months of the heating season when it is cold. The Belarusian produce is grown in green houses, beginning from April. They have to incur costs associated with heating. They need money for investments, which they also include into the cost of their produce.
In her turn, Iryna Baryshnikava, the head of the consumer rights protection department at the Ministry of Trade, said the industry uses sales in order to make foodstuff costs as attractive as possible. "Over the past five months, 6700 sales took place across the country. The goods worth of 49.4 billion rubels were sold out", said she.
Besides, she reminded that all internet-based shops should register with the trade register by July 1. Today, there are over 3000 e-shops, but only a half of them has registered so far.
The Ministry of Economy also monitors the market in order to prevent monopolies from setting overpriced costs for their goods. Beltelecom is one of the monopolies on the Belarusian market. And, since the presidential decree on internet regulation has come into effect, the position of this monopoly on the internet services market concerns independent providers.
Ihar Famin promised to deal with this monopoly.
Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk
