The RSPP proposed measures to regulate prices for certain types of food

The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) sent proposals to the government on measures to regulate prices for certain types of food products. This is stated in a letter from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, sent to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin.

"Supporting the work of the Government of the Russian Federation to abandon the practice of administrative price regulation in favor of supporting market mechanisms, we propose to analyze the possibility of implementing other measures, including compensation for growing costs of producers, programs of targeted assistance to consumers and reducing the administratively conditioned excessive burden on production costs. In particular, We believe that support for producers can be considered effective through the existing mechanisms for controlling purchase prices for fuels and lubricants, preferential lending mechanisms (subsidizing interest rates), crop insurance, and through continuing the practice of buying into the state reserve and selling from this reserve.

The RSPP also believes that subsidizing the purchase of Russian food products by citizens with the lowest incomes can be considered as measures to stimulate consumer demand. According to RSPP, these proposals will ensure price predictability, and will also become an incentive for the development of Russian producers and trade.

The letter notes that such measures as the agreement on setting ceiling prices for sunflower oil and sugar signed between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture on the one hand, and producers and retail chains on the other hand, are effective only in the short term.

Weekly inflation in Russia slowed to 0.1%

Earlier it was reported that on December 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin drew attention to the rise in prices for basic food products. The head of state stressed that the increase in prices is not due to the coronavirus pandemic, but to attempts to adjust domestic prices to world conditions. On December 16, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture, the largest Russian retailers and food producers signed agreements to stabilize sugar prices. On March 30, the Russian government extended the agreement on stabilizing prices for granulated sugar until June 1, 2021.