Shopping changes in Hungary: price monitoring system updated
Hungary’s unique price monitoring system kicked off this July to combat record-high inflation. Though experts believe it contributed little to the decrease in the price rise, we can say that inflation eased significantly in the past few months. The system showed and compared the prices of 60 food products in 1,200 shops, but the government plans to implement another major change.
Hungary struggled with Europe’s highest inflation in the last few months. At times, the food price inflation reached more than 50%. In the case of certain food products, the rate crept up to 100%. Therefore, the government decided to introduce a unique price monitoring system, an app, which enabled citizens to compare food prices in the shops of five retail chains: Lidl, Tesco, Spar, Auchan, Aldi and Penny. We wrote HERE that Auchan in Hungary has been acquired by one of the wealthiest Hungarians recently. HERE you may find the map of the shops concerned.
The comparable food products included dairy products, cheese, eggs, meat, sliced meat, vegetables, fruits, bread and sustainable food. Inflation decreased in the second half of 2023, but experts believe that this shift was inevitable to occur even without the government’s new monitoring system.
According to index.hu, the cabinet will modify that system significantly in 2024. Based on Hungary’s Ministry of Economic Development, an additional 18 food products will be included in the system. Among others, the list of affected items
will comprise gluten and dairy-free products as well as duck and beef.
As a result, the number of monitored food products will reach 80.
The government highlighted their system helps reduce inflation fuelled by the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Brussels sanctions against Russia and the speculation of the multinational companies.
Apart from the price monitoring system, the government introduced a compulsory price reduction system in June. HERE you may find further details on this programme.
The government said they managed to reduce inflation to one digit by October.
They said the price monitoring website had 1.4 million viewers and 850 thousand searches in the last five months.
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