In a further effort to help citizens cope with rising inflation, Hungary has frozen the prices for six basic food groups at their Oct. 15, 2021 level, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced after the year’s first cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“All over Europe, prices are rising as a result fuel price increases,” Orbán said. “Hungary is protecting families, we managed to rein in the petrol price increase, we have introduced an interest rate freeze for mortgages, and we also have a utility price reduction policy, meaning that Hungarian families buy energy at a fixed rate and this protects them.”
“Meanwhile, the price of other important products such as food is also rising. We have decided that in the case of six products (…) we will interfere with the evolution of prices,” Orbán said. “This means that the price of these six foods must be reduced to the level they were last Oct. 15.”
The six food items are sugar, wheat flour, sunflower oil, pork leg, chicken breast and 2.8 percent fat milk.
On Nov. 12, the Hungarian government announced it is freezing gas and diesel prices at HUF 480 (€1.31) per liter for three months starting Monday, Nov. 15.
According to the latest data from the Central Statistics Office, consumer prices rose by 7.4 percent year-on-year last November.
