New momentum price freeze has started in Kosovo

I don't understand anything already. Last night I heard in the news a statement by the governor of the Central Bank of Kosovo issued for media, while today (Monday, January 2, 2023) as they came to the market chest that I regularly frequented and because I have it right next to my home to pay the KABI, the company's same name, received the surprise of the newly raised price. Instead of paying 90 cents, what the price of this product has been in recent months, from Monday it must pay 1 euro”, says A.M., a well-informed market pensioner in Pristina, not a bit revolted to get out of the market on the “Nazim Gafurri <3> road.

The “looks probably 10 cents high on the KABI's non-tour price, but that price rate goes on to over 10 percent of the price up to”, continues to tell the pensioner about the Economic Bulletin.

He recalls that not too long ago, he bought this product for 45 cents a few months ago. These price hikes, which in the early days of this year are disturbing, especially for pensioners, whose grip is completely lacking, says pensioner A. M., which also has many remarks for Kosovo merchants and for some food products, but prefers anonymity.

He does not hide that he likes the products of this compass (the milk, cheese, yogurt, and yogurt), but he is very rebellious with the prices often raised by this producer.

I was not a little worried about the market owner's warning of newly raised cheese prices, which so far have somehow been acceptable compared to other cheese prices. But, the owner of the market has warned that the amounts of cheese expected to come from the manufacturer soon will have prices raised”, says pensioner Pristina.

This early year, there have been some other products of widespread consumption. According to AKS statistics, from December 31st 2022 to January 2nd of 2022, prices have marked increases in a number of other products. More precisely, according to the AKS, milled coffee, tea, clothing and shampoo are expensive for hair. Tea's gone up 67 cents.

The supply has continued on January 3rd. According to AKS data, beef, white meat, ingurt, cream, eggs, potatoes, sugar, tea, kitchen salt, natural gas, gas-free seas for clothes and shampoos for hair. Actually, these first days of 2023, The AKS has also recorded the symbolic drop in prices of several other products, including basic food stock. The products that have been released are rice, pasta, flour, milk, cheese, breasts, oil, fasulja, which have been released from 1 to 4 cents. More precisely, the price movement, the AKS has put it on a sign published on its official page. The fairly large price movement towards the rise of many basic food products, in the first two or three days of 2023, has taken place just days after Kosovo's Central Bank forecast for the possibility of falling inflation in the year we just entered.

As it is known, the governor of this institution, Fehmi Mehmeti, a few days before the New Year, has said there will be reductions of inflation by up to 6 per cent, which means there will also be price cuts.

Our “expectations are that in the second six-month of 2023 we have a reduction of inflation to 6 percent, and that will greatly affect citizens' insolvency, which will then affect consumer growth as the main component of economic growth in the country”, Mehmet has declared for media.

But if it continues as in the first three days of anarchic rise, without any logic of the market and prices, from now on the big dilemma of how there will be a reduction of inflation in this year. There is no possibility of reducing inflation by raising the prices of many daily products and having a direct impact on the significant decline in the social situation of most poor Kosovars. But even in the early days of 2023, when the large price movement on the Kosovo market was seen and touched, the institutions of the Republic and official authorities were virtually totally powerless against the transparent trends for increased prices, which seem to be also promoted and applied to abusive merchants and aimed at enriching themselves without choice of ways and roads and without ignoring any legal or moral standards. In other words, the government's measures, made public now and many times for curbing the wild burst of prices, especially elementary food products, are only being found.

The figures of the new prices mentioned in this scripture show more clearly that no official, largely approved document in the Kosovo Assembly for curbing anarchy and chaos in prices has been respected by merchants, but also by some local producers. Neither has the VV resolution, approved by majority of votes in the Kosovo Assembly months ago, aimed at addressing the price hikes of basic products in Kosovo and in some way setting up a price ceiling for basic food products, to have little supervision in the prices of basic products, nor other documents.

It is now emerging to be only an ordiner text, with no single impact on the performance of curbing wild prices, and the Law on the Interim Measures of Foundation Products, adopted in the last months of 2022. As it is known, the document said the Kosovo Assembly requires the Government to take immediate action and extraordinary measures to address inflation growth and its impact on the prices of basic products. In addition, the Parliament through the resolution has demanded from the executive that even through monitoring instruments, he halts efforts to exploit this situation by abusive merchants.

However, as is being seen by the latest rates of prices of many basic food products, no demand and target of official documents has been met. Simply, as with them as without them, merchants, who always displayed their abusive tendencies, even these days raised the prices, raising too much of the margin of profit. So, very few of the measures warned to come up to citizens by curbing price abuses have produced effects, while in Kosovo markets and at all, or no concrete effects have been noted at the beginning of this year in terms of stopping further price ferocity in the country. The prices, therefore, just kept rising rapidly and with staggering rates of rising rates.

While, the rise of primary food products prices is being felt on their shoulders by Kosovo citizens. Even more, the poor who are the numberless majority in this country. They, already, said February and Albanian, have grown tired and are barely closing the month for months. The purchasing power of Kosovars in general, and in particular of the scant, has definitely fallen, even since in the last months of 2022 and now at the very beginning of 2023, Kosovo families are buying almost every product more expensive. And, the longer this situation and this chaos of prices lasts, the more the welfare of the majority of Kosovo's population will be violated and peace, even the fragile social community of this country, will be dissolved. /Economic Bouletin