After making similar decisions with the prices of bread, rice, eggs and dairy products, the Government now plans to freeze prices of fruits and vegetables.

This is the option that the Kovacevski Government resorted to after run-away inflation that it failed to control through usual, market friendly means. Protests continue to come from the businesses – the baking industry announced a lawsuit. The large SKM chamber of commerce and now the smaller, regional, majority Albanian chamber of North West North Macedonia SKSZM demand that the Government uses other means – such as reducing the value added tax or using the food reserves to influence the market.

Freezing the prices is not a market solution. The burden of the crisis can’t be placed on one industry but must be shared evenly, said the SKM chamber.