Freezing prices is not a market solution, according to Zoran Jovanovski, vice president and advisor in the Office of the President of the Chamber of Commerce for macroeconomic issues and public finances of North Macedonia.
According to Jovanovski, the burden of the crisis should not be borne by only one industry, but should fall on the backs of everyone a little at a time. The state, on the other hand, should provide targeted financial assistance at the level of families who would buy bread at frozen prices.
When the price of bread is frozen, as Jovanovski mentioned, it is frozen for everyone in society, both for the socially endangered and for those who can pay a price five times higher than that. Hence the question arises, why the one who can pay five times higher price should buy the bread at a frozen price and why it is subsidized.
“The solution is: the price should be market-based, what is required by supply and demand, the state of the market, and the state should provide targeted financial assistance at the level of a family, not an individual,” Jovanovski pointed out.
