The Commission for the Protection of Competition has launched surprise investigations into a cartel between retail chains and manufacturers.

CPC self-reported market violations. 

"It is normal for the regulatory authorities to do their job. This should not be a bad signal to business. The 

. If there is no competition, there is no market economy. I expect the regulators to do their job and if there are violations, yes be sanctioned", commented 

 in the studio of "

".  

Ivan Kostov: There is not much to tighten the belts

According to 

there has been food inflation since the time of the pandemic.

"Most antimonopoly measures are rejected by the court. Or something is not working in the Commission. I am skeptical, its mandate has expired for two years. Since 1999, the Law on the Protection of Competition, 2004-2006 has been adopted. Now they remembered to do inspections, where were they until now?" asked Assoc. Boyukliev from 

.

According to Krastev, the measures cannot affect end users.

"This is an attempt by the state, through the institutions at its disposal, to put pressure on the large commercial chains. The communication between the state authorities and the large companies must be continuous. When we have such state intervention in the economy in recent years, the state could be in dialogue. In terms of the margin that is realized on a large part of food products, it is really quite high," the economist opined.

The price ceiling leads to a shortage of goods and services

, Krastev also pointed out.

According to Associate Professor Boyukliev, there is no administrative price ceiling anywhere. 

"These people either lie because they know that the voter is naive and think that by putting a ceiling it will become cheaper, or they are incompetent," he commented.

The violations established by the Commission for the Protection of Competition will not lead to a decrease in prices

, the economists said.

A cap on markups will be detrimental to small traders

"The lowering of prices will happen as a natural process with the reduction of consumption and with the raising of the main interest rates by the major central banks. The problem is that we are distorting the market economy," explained Krastev. 

According to Associate Professor Ognyan Boyukliev, 

 "The structure of consumption is such that if we crush incomes, we will have hunger," added the guest. 

price ceiling