Belarus's Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Economy intend to improve antimonopoly legislation in order to minimize price growth in the consumer market. This was reported by First Deputy Trade Minister of Belarus Alexander Zabello at the joint meeting of both Houses of Parliament on May 27.
«Today the situation in the consumer market has shown that there are some problems with critical import deliveries to the country. We’ve got market monopolists. For example, cereals are imported in Belarus by about 40 companies today, three of which occupy 80% of the market. The way the monopolists behave in this situation affects existence and value of the goods,» said the official, BelTA informs.
Alexander Zabello notes that the Ministries promptly make «changes to address the process.» According to him, Ministry of Trade is taking the necessary measures to satisfy the consumer goods market.
«I can assure you that there’ll be no problems with the food in our country. Of course, there will be some price growth, because the current price disparity with neighboring countries seriously influences the economic situation in the country,» said the Deputy Minister.
Free Pricing Not Affected Mark-up Growth, Zabello
«The average size of trade mark-ups was 16% for food products prior to the introduction of free prices in Belarus, while now it equals to 16.4%. It has risen by less than 0.5%. The average size of trade mark-up for non-food items is now 23.2%, while previously it was 22.5%. It means that introduction of free prices hasn’t affected in any way the mark-up growth,» the official said.
He said that price growth in Belarus was due to the formation of the wholesale selling prices for imported goods or goods with imported components. «The government adopted a decree № 601, which authorized the Economy Ministry to analyze the legitimacy of increasing the wholesale selling prices not only in monopoly enterprises, but everywhere. All will be corrected if needed,» said Alexander Zabello.
