Inflation Gathers Speed: What Grew In Price In Belarus?

The authorities have lost control over prices.

The real inflation in Belarus has exceeded the psychological threshold of 10%. The belmir.by website has studied what prices have risen most of all.

As for groups of goods and services, the cost of educational services increased most in September. They rose by 6.74%. The higher education - by 8.25%, the specialized secondary - by 7.82%. It is quite easy to explain: September is the beginning of a new school year, when new prices for education are set. Thus, in 2020, they increased by 1.85 percent in September, by 7.88 percent in 2019, by 14.02 percent in 2018 and by 8.83 percent in 2017.

Fruits and vegetables were in second place, rising 5.74 percent. In general, vegetable prices added 10.59 percent and fruit added 5.52 percent. Fresh cucumbers increased in price by 88.95 percent, tomatoes by 51.07 percent and bananas by 32.72 percent. Generally speaking, vegetables and fruits get significantly more expensive closer to winter every year, but this time it happened earlier than usual. By comparison, in September of 2020 and 2018, these products were actually getting cheaper.

The third position was taken by meat and meat products. Their prices rose by 3.92 percent. Pork (except boneless meat) - plus 7.01 percent, boneless pork - plus 4.45 percent, chicken (chickens, including broilers) - plus 6.69 percent, minced meat - plus 5.87 percent. Such a strong monthly increase has not been observed in recent years, and it can be explained by the decision of the Council of Ministers to allow raising meat prices in September.

Soap (+3.43%), jewelry (+3.35), travel services (+3.05), household cleaning products (+2.99), synthetic detergents (+2.89), TV and radio goods (+2.48) and ice cream (+2.15) were also among the leaders of the price rise in September.