Romanian Govt. meets retailers to persuade them to cut staple goods' prices

Representatives of the Romanian government, including prime minister Marcel Ciolacu, and of the large retailers' associations met on June 20 in a first attempt to find a mechanism aimed at bringing down the prices for staple goods.

Making essential food goods more affordable and bringing the headline inflation under 8% by the end of the year are two targets of the new cabinet headed by PM Ciolacu.

The mechanism envisaged by the Social Democrats consists in capping the profit margins charged along the entire production-distribution-retail channel.

The mechanism should be entirely voluntary, as in the case of milk, where the shelf prices dropped by 20% following the implementation of such an agreement, Profit.ro reported.

"I am pleased with the openness showed by the business to agree, as a result of our dialogue, a viable, simple and clear mechanism that, together with government measures, will lead to reducing inflation and increasing the purchasing power of Romanians. Our ruling is first and foremost for the people, and our firm commitment is to reduce inflation to single digits by the end of the year. I am convinced we can achieve this in partnership with the business environment," prime minister Ciolacu said.

(Photo source: Gov.ro)