The trend of rising prices and galloping inflation continues, as shown by the Consumer Price Index of the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Food is 5.6 percent more expensive in April than in March, and compared to April 2021, food prices are even 20.6 percent higher.
Annual inflation in BiH is as high as 13.2 percent.
Commodity reserves
Doctor of economic sciences Svetlana Cenic says that no one is moving a finger.
”To support purchasing power through subsidies for communal services or energy, so that citizens have more to pay for food. Or in a way to buy commodity reserves, which serve to stabilize prices, and which, of course, do not exist. I must remind you that we had great floods in 2014, and there were none then as well. Eight years later, we still have no commodity reserves. It is the same Government. I am dumbfounded by that fact,” Cenic expresses.
While the domestic public is being fooled by political conflicts, the federal prime minister is telling citizens that they are resilient and can still endure, BiH politicians have extended a hand for a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan. In that way, says Cenic, they will buy the elections, and they will not do anything for the citizens.
In addition, official data show that bread was 28.34 percent more expensive in April compared to the same period last year. In addition to bread, bakery products are also more expensive, by 28.80 percent.
The recent decision of India, one of the world’s largest wheat producers, to ban the export of basic cereals has further aggravated the situation on the global market.
Zoran Kos, president of the Republika Srpska (RS) Association of Millers, said in an interview that the situation on the stock exchange will determine the further course of the increase in the price of flour, and thus bakery products.
”The price currently ranges from 360 to 440 euros per ton, depending on whether it is from Serbia or Hungary, these are the markets from which we buy. If someone has stocks, he will not raise the price of flour, and if he does not have them, their flour will be more expensive, it now depends on the mill to mill and how much stock there is,” Zoran says.
The price of wheat
He says the stock market is the deciding factor.
”I have a feeling that for the first time in the harvest, the price of wheat will continue to rise. From harvest onwards, the price of wheat may rise. Then there will be a harmonization of prices with wheat prices, ie price increases,” Kos concludes.
What do they say from ‘Klas’
After the information appeared that ‘Klas’ products could become more expensive and half whole wheat bread, which now costs 1.5 BAM, could cost as much as 2 BAM, the company told the media that they are doing everything they can to keep prices the same.
Prices will not rise until the end of May, they said, but if wheat prices continue to rise, price corrections are inevitable.
