Inflation accelerated in March - the largest impact on the annual price increase was caused by a 6.6% increase in prices in the food commodity group, which was reflected in the annual inflation by 2.2 percentage points.
Vegetables, coffee, tea, and non-alcoholic beverages became more expensive. Economists say that the increase in the price of bread and bakery products had a significant impact on the formation of the inflation rate last month.
The head of the Bakers' Association says that the business revised prices a year ago in agreement with the government. According to Malkhaz Dolidze, representatives of the sector took into account the request of the then Minister of Agriculture Otar Shamugia and adjusted the price of products. After the change of minister, flour became more expensive in the local market and it became difficult for businesses to maintain the price of bread.
“If the price of flour is within 52 GEL, then the issue of maintaining the price was raised. We could have maintained the price. Today, there has been a recent trend of increasing flour prices. One bag of flour produced in Georgia costs 57 GEL. In such a situation, we were forced to return to the old prices. I will remind you that when Prime Minister Garibashvili was there, a number of measures were taken and bread price decreased by 10 tetri. Today, the price of flour is within 57 GEL. The temporary tax that was imposed on the import of Russian flour and allowed us to buy Russian flour and ensure that we had stable production, today we are deprived of this too, because the price was increased by 12.5 GEL, which also increased the import tax,” said Malkhaz Dolidze, head of the Bakers’ Association.
