On January 4 of this year, a temporarily expanded list of socially significant food products came into effect in Kazakhstan. While the list previously included 19 items, it has now been expanded to 31. The updated list includes products that had the greatest impact on food inflation, including cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, tea, sour cream, fish, beef (with and without bones), chicken, horse meat, and hard cheese.

According to the Bureau of National Statistics, the price index for socially significant food products was 0.2 percent in the first week of this year. This indicator remained at the same level for the same period last year. It is important to note that this year's index was calculated taking into account the expanded list of products, indicating stable price dynamics for essential goods.

Furthermore, a number of new items included in the expanded list have already seen price declines ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 percent. Despite the insignificant nature of this decline, these figures confirm that the process of price stabilization has already begun and the first results have been achieved very quickly. Specifically, among fruit and vegetable products, prices for apples fell by 0.5 percent, while cucumbers and tomatoes fell by 0.4 percent. In the grocery segment, prices for hard and semi-hard cheeses fell by 0.3 percent, while black tea fell by 0.2 percent. In the meat and fish product group, prices decreased by 0.1 percent. Among dairy products, sour cream also fell by 0.1 percent.

To curb prices, active monitoring of retail outlets and outreach to businesses have been underway since the beginning of the year. On January 13, Daulen Kabdushev, Deputy Chairman of the Trade Committee of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with representatives of the local akimat, conducted price monitoring and outreach to vendors at the capital's markets.

"Our colleagues in the regions are currently conducting similar work today. We are explaining to businesses that products previously not included in the SZPT list are now classified as socially significant food products. This means that the Trade Committee will exercise state oversight to ensure compliance with the maximum trade markup. I would like to point out that, in accordance with current legislation, the maximum trade markup on socially significant food products should not exceed 15 percent," noted Trade Committee Deputy Chairman Daulen Kabdushev.

Source : https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mti/press/news/details/1141505?lang=kk