Romania‘s new government is working on an emergency ordinance to cap the additional costs imposed by retailers, as Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu plans to meet with representatives of retail chains to discuss the first draft of this emergency ordinance on Tuesday, according to Euractiv.
This capping will cover almost all basic foods, from fruits and vegetables to dairy and eggs. The commercial addition may be capped for a period of six months.
“The maximum urgency is to reduce commercial additives to a number of basic food products along the entire chain. The effect of applying this measure is to lower the prices of several vital foods in any household”, Ciolacu said.
“We have already prepared the draft, it is about the chain-wide reduction of the mark-ups,” the Minister of Economy Radu Ştefan Oprea said.
This measure “will bring the prices for basic foods into a reasonable area for all Romanians,” Oprea said.
On Monday, the prime minister and his predecessor Nicolae Ciuca held a meeting with the Governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu, to talk about the main challenges facing Romania in the short, medium and long term.
Their discussion primarily revolved around establishing “a joint action plan to achieve the 4.4% deficit target, measures to reduce the inflation rate to 8% and a government investment plan of 250 billion lei (€50 billion)”, Ciuca said.
The annual inflation rate decreased to 10.64% in May 2023, from 11.23% in April 2023, as food products rose by 18.73%, non-food products by 5.15% and services by 11.16%, according to data released on June 13 by the National Institute of Statistics.