“The last week – zero changes in the price index for NWPT (socially important food products – approx.), 19 positions, you probably know them by heart, there are no changes there. There are certain expectations for the New Year’s basket, for the price index for the New Year’s table. We conditionally, we took about 37 positions, there are certain changes in some positions such as milk in soft packaging, tangerines, champagne, and so on.
We are in the corridor, if our annual inflation is about 10.3 percent, then the change in the New Year’s basket is about 10.7 percent. Yes, there are changes, we always note that there is a New Year, this is a seasonal phenomenon, there is an increase in prices. But beyond those indices of values that we have in general,” the minister said.
According to him, since the beginning of the year in Kazakhstan there has been an increase in prices for socially important food products of about 3.4 percent.
Separately, journalists asked whether Kazakhstanis should expect jumps in egg prices. In neighboring Russia, this product has risen in price by almost 45 percent (since the beginning of the year), which has caused some concerns among Kazakhstanis.
“For eggs, we have concluded a memorandum with producers, with the largest producers and associations, retail chains, so that the trade markup is respected. We see that it works. Today we are fully self-sufficient in eggs. We have a surplus production, our agreements in the memorandum relate to this so that there are no sharp price increases,” the minister assured.
The minister noted that egg prices will remain within reasonable limits, not exceeding the annual inflation index.
“Of course, the structure is changing, but within the limits of the expectations that we, together with the association, have identified, the price of eggs always falls in the summer and rises in winter, but this growth should not be explosive, it should not provoke demand rushes, it should be within those limits annual indices, they are reasonable. This is not state price regulation, this is an absolutely voluntary position of producers, it is aimed at ensuring that there is no explosive nature,” Shakkaliev added.
For products in general, according to the minister, one should not expect an “explosive” rise in prices.
“I think, in general, the trend is that inflation will go from double-digit to single-digit; we have a steady downward trend,” he concluded.
