Price cap on six basic food products
With inflation ramping up, the Hungarian government decided to freeze the prices of six food products from February 1 at their October 15, 2021 levels. These are sugar, wheat flour, sunflower-seed oil, pork leg, chicken breast and cow’s milk with 2.8% fat.
To support private households, the government has already capped fuel prices, introduced an interest rate stop on mortgages and, for several years, capped utility bills.
SZÉP recreation card also for purchasing cold food
From February 1, 2022 to May 31, 2022, all sub-accounts of the SZÉP recreation card can be used to purchase cold food in retail stores. However, this means additional administrative and technical tasks as well as considerable costs for the retail stores. For the merchant, the cost of acceptance for the SZÉP Card is maximum 3.6%, or minimum 12 HUF per transaction. About HUF 300 billion (about EUR 8.3 million) have accumulated on the approximately 2 million SZÉP cards.
Obligation to report construction raw materials extended
Exporters will still have to declare certain construction raw materials and products of strategic importance. The Ministry of Innovation and Technology has extended the corresponding deadline for the regulation launched in July 2021 until the end of May, 2022. Exports of steel, sand, gravel and insulating materials must be registered in the EKÁER system (Electronic Road Freight Control System) and the delivery routes must be specified in advance. After there were increasing supply problems in the domestic hardware store, the state intervened to regulate.