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GULYÁS: 'GOVT COMMITMENT TO PUSH DOWN INFLATION STILL REALISTIC'

The government has made a commitment to push inflation into the single digits before the end of this year which is still a realistic undertaking despite the difficulties, the head of the Prime Minister's Office told a press briefing on Wednesday.
 

“It might be achieved in November, but, as also suggested by forecasts, we can certainly deliver on this commitment by December,” said Gergely Gulyás, adding that “there are some worrying signs which are related primarily to the fact that fuel prices are now higher than they were before”. He attributed soaring fuel prices to the five-fold increase in the transit fee of fuel imported via Ukrainian pipelines. “Fuel price increases in the past one month have alone increased inflation by half a percent,” he said. Gulyás said that a European Commission ban imposed on Ukrainian grain imports in five neighbouring countries would expire on September 15 and if the EC does not extend the ban “we will be forced to introduce measures in national authority”. “We are again asking the EC from here to understand the rationale behind the decision and extend the current import ban”, he said. It would be best to find a solution that meets the original goal which was to help African countries suffering from starvation instead of damaging European agricultural markets, he added.