Alyaksandr Lukashenka has announced a ban on price increases in Belarus from 6 October, Belarusian state news agency BelTA reports.
“From 6 October any increase in prices is prohibited. Forbidden! From today. Not from tomorrow, but from today. So that they do not inflate prices over the day. Therefore, from today, price increases are prohibited. God forbid someone decides to raise prices or do some indexation retroactively,” he said during a government session.
“The prosecutor and the State Control Committee will determine what to do with anyone who violates my instructions, who contributes to any violations, or who just takes no notice of them,” Lukashenka warned.
He noted that the prices in Belarus had “hit the ceiling”. “Prices cannot be raised anywhere. There is no need for that. Yet there may be exceptions. These exceptions are under the control of the minister and the governors. That’s it,” he concluded.
According to the National Statistics Committee of Belarus, the inflation rate in the country reached 13.8% in January-August 2022. Meanwhile, the annual inflation from August 2021 to August 2022 has hit 17.9%.