Shocking Figures: Authorities Falsify Inflation Data

What's really going on in the stores.

According to official statistics, wage growth significantly outpaces price growth. If you go to the store, it's hard to believe it. "Belsat" checked how prices in a popular online store have changed over the year, having "bought" a random set of products.

Officially, the price growth in Belarus is as follows: in June 2025 to June 2024 - plus 7.3%, including food products - plus 10.5%, non-food - plus 3.2%, services - plus 7.1%. Analysts of the Eurasian Development Bank say that prices in Belarus will grow even faster until the end of the year.

But Belarusians often notice that prices in stores are rising faster than in the official statistics. "Belstat" explains why this is so: the consumer price index is an average value, which takes into account changes in a certain fixed set of goods and services in the country (for analysis they take up to half a thousand items), while people feel the "personal inflation" of their set of products for the needs of their family in their location.

And yet, if you go to the store a year ago and today, what will be the price difference?

For the experiment, let's take a popular Belarusian online grocery delivery service: the main page today and an archival copy of this country Let's collect a basket of goods from last year's homepage, taking the prices of goods without taking into account promotions, and compare them with today's prices for the same goods on the same site. The goods of the same type will be discarded: we do not need three types of washing powder, one will suffice. Some products have disappeared from sale - let's find the closest to them, which are sold now. If they are not found (as in the case of Italian pasta), then throw out of the basket.

Get a basket of 34 almost random goods-food and hygiene products. Of course, this is not a comprehensive list of all possible goods and not an average set of goods for a family for a week. But such a set could be quite possible for an ordinary Belarusian, who went to the hypermarket for big purchases for a week, having not quite an empty refrigerator at home.

We have this. Prices for our basket of goods have increased by as much as 22.1% over the year! What cost 348.77 rubles a year ago, now costs 426.01!

But the price of cherries is fantastic: at the Komarovsky market in Minsk you can buy them for 17. Let's discard cherries - we'll get a price increase of 15.7%. And caviar has somehow gone up in price - if we discard it as well, the annual price growth will amount to 13.8%. If we take away the powder - 11.7%.... So, we can get close to the figures of "Belstat," if we choose the products, which have not gone up in price too much.

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