Rumas: We need to raise prices

Otherwise deficit at the consumer market cannot be avoided.

Administrative price regulation, still widely used in Belarus, can at any moment result in another deficit at the consumer market due to more attractive export prices compared with those at the domestic market. This may provoke new waves of mass exports of goods to the neighbouring countries by individuals, AFN news agency reports.

“It’s too early to talk about full stabilization of the situation at the consumer market. Controlling prices of a range of socially important goods by administrative methods makes exports more profitable, but does not decrease risks of restricted variety of goods on shop shelves,” Deputy PM Syarhei Rumas said today at a meeting at the Ministry of Trade of Belarus.

He admitted in this relation the authorities had no other choice but to gradually raise prices to the level which would allow reaching profitability of selling goods at the domestic market.