Supermarket (Pixabay)
The Serbian government’s decision to place a cap on retail markups has been brought in haste, under pressure of the protests and the exploding dissatisfaction of the citizens, and without a deeper consideration of the causes that lead to inflation and rapid food price hikes, analysts have assessed, as conveyed by Demostat on their web-site on Sept. 4.
“They failed to consider the entire chain – from the producers and processors to distributors and retailers, as well as the macroeconomic policy of the state, which is the true cause of inflation,” the economists assessed.
The subject of monopolies in retail and excessive retail markups was first opened two years ago, at the height of a two-digit inflation rate, by the governor of the National Bank of Serbia, Jorgovanka Tabakovic.
She first claimed that Serbia had “imported” the inflation but, when it became obvious that those “external” factors also affected other countries and yet their prices grew at a significantly slower pace, she marked the retailers as the main cause of inflation.
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