Mandatory Markup Caps Extended Till End-May

The Hungarian government has decided to extend mandatory caps on a range of food and non-food products by three months until the end of May, the Ministry of National Economy said in a statement.

The government rolled out a 10% cap on markups for the food products and a 15% cap on the non-food products in the spring of 2025. The measure was set to expire at the end of February.

The ministry noted that the latest inflation data for January, released earlier on Thursday, showed food prices had risen just 1.3% year-on-year, and fell 2.0% excluding the price of eating out.

Since the markups caps were introduced, the prices of affected products have fallen by more than 20%, the ministry said.

The ministry also highlighted the impact of voluntary price restrictions in the banking, insurance, telecommunications and pharmaceutical sectors.