The food trade does not want to be the bogeyman of the country in the current inflation debate and has appealed for more honesty in the debate in a letter to the federal government.
“The story that the food retail trade is the major beneficiary of the high inflation is not correct,” write the bosses of Spar, Rewe, Hofer, Lidl, Mpreis, Unimarkt, Denns, 1,600 independent traders and representatives of the trade association. The Greens’ club boss’s latest appearance in the ORF “Press Hour” was met with “great surprise and irritation”, depicting food retailing as the de facto sole cause of inflation. “We can no longer tolerate such defamatory and misleading comments,” the letter said.
The industry reiterates that a retailer’s profit margin is not the difference between the selling price and the buying price. Food and non-alcoholic drinks rose by an average of 14.6 percent in March according to the HICP calculation (harmonized consumer price index) in Austria. Statistics Austria will publish inflation figures for April on Wednesday.
Call for VAT suspension
The opposition and the trade union have long been demanding the suspension of VAT on basic foodstuffs. “Price regulation is the only thing that helps against long-term inflation and it is high time that this was also introduced in Austria,” SPÖ economic spokesman Christoph Matznetter said on Tuesday. The call for VAT reduction is also becoming louder among representatives.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
