Skopje, 28.02.2025
The Minister of Economy and Labor, Besar Durmishi, held a press conference today, in which he informed about the measures adopted by the Ministry of Economy and Labor to protect the standard of living of citizens.
Attached is the full speech of Minister Durmishi.
Respected media,
The Ministry of Economy and Labor and the Government continuously adopt measures and create policies aimed at protecting the standard of living of citizens, reducing the prices of essential food products and stabilizing inflation. At the beginning of this week, the Assembly, at the proposal of a group of MPs, voted on amendments to the Consumer Protection Law.
With these amendments, retailers, starting in mid-April, will have a mandatory obligation to publish the prices of all products on their websites.
The law, which we expect to be published in the Official Gazette in the coming days, stipulates that, within 45 days from the date of its entry into force, retailers must publish the prices of all products they sell in their stores on their websites.
In the next 10 days, the Rulebooks will be published that will prescribe how prices will be announced by retailers.
With these amendments, we expect greater transparency of prices in markets, improved competition and price reductions.
The citizens will now be able to choose where to spend their money, they will know for each product in which market and at what price the same product is sold.
This measure will lead to increased competition between retailers and a reduction in product prices. Consumers will be fully informed about the price of each product at each retailer.
This law applies to small, medium and large retailers, thus excluding micro-traders and sole proprietors, that is, neighborhood shops.
This legislative change follows after last week, the Government, at the proposal of the Ministry of Economy and Labor, decided to limit the margins of 102 groups of essential food products and hygiene products and limit the prices of 8 groups of the most essential food products.
As we previously informed, these two measures are already in force and will last until April 30, meaning that both holidays, Ramadan and Easter, will be covered.
Let me remind you, the decision to limit the gross profit margin in wholesale and retail trade to 102 product groups or over 1000 food and non-food products covers:
5% gross profit margin on the essential 8 food products milk, bread, flour (type 400 and type 500, eggs, cooking oil, yogurt and sour milk)
10% gross profit margin on food products which includes a group of 55 food products (meat and meat products, sugar, dairy products, margarine, butter, canned vegetables and fruits, beans, rice, pasta)
15% gross profit margin on 39 food products and hygiene products (fresh fruits and vegetables, detergents, baby food, diapers, soap, toilet paper and more.
The State Market Inspectorate is on the ground and inspectors are acting on the decision whether the markets have adjusted their prices on the shelves.
By the end of this week, it is planned to conduct surveillance of over 1000 commercial facilities across the country, after which the State Market Inspectorate will issue data on possible non-compliance by certain markets.
Fines range from EUR500 to 10.000, up to and including the closure of markets for 15 days. The expectations are that prices will decrease by an average of about 10%, which will help stabilize inflation and protect the standard of living of the citizens.