Utilities and petrol will grow in price following foodstuff

The foodstuff’s growing in price is the first sign in a whole chain of increased prices.

In the nearest time Belarusians will see the price growth on utilities and petrol. The minister Andrej Sharec warns of the growth in prices on utilities in an interview to Narodnaja Hazeta.

“Considering that the level of tariffs on utilities significantly influences the population’s level of living, the price growth is planned to go gradually, linked to the growth of people’s incomes and simultaneous targeted assistance in paying for utilities, provided to the least socially protected groups”, - he says.

An expert Anton Baltochka also says that the authorities use the formal growth of incomes for increasing prices. In an interview to BelaPAN he claimed that the authorities will not meet the predicted inflation rates in the manual management mode. In the expert’s opinion, the price growth may account to about 15% at the end of the year. According to official data, the inflation has reached already 7% in the first half of the year.

Foodstuff has become the first sign in the sequence of price growths, since they have long not been increased exactly for this product group, Baltochka notes. The economist believes that one should expect further increase in price for utilities, which are often increased in summer, since it is less noticeable for people, than in winter, and fuel.

The increase of excise duty rates, initiated by the Ministry of Finance, tells about the coming growth in prices for petrol.

“The Ministry of Finance has put forward an initiative to increase the excise duty rates for fuel, motivated by the necessity of increasing the budget income. If this suggestion is supported at the government level, Belarusian refineries hope that their interests will be considered”, - a source from the refining industry reported several days ago.

According to him, the Ministry of Finance is initiating a 20% of the excise duty rates for petrol tupes for cars and 33-35% - for diesel fuel.