President Maia Sandu has gloomy forecasts. She said there are now no signs showing that the prices of energy resources will decline and the rate of inflation will therefore remain high. The Government will try to help the citizens in the cold period of the year by providing subsidies for heat. But only the families with low incomes will benefit from support from the state, IPN reports.
President Maia Sandu explained that the increase in all prices is due to the continuous rise in the prices of energy resources on the international market. The high food prices are due to the stopping of imports from Ukraine and to the reorientation to products from the European states.
“The rate of inflation is very high and surely affects a lot of people and this is our major concern. We import energy resources and have the highest price rises here. I refer to natural gas, fuels. We do not produce natural gas and cannot control prices. The Government tried to compensate the farmers for this rise by refunding the excise duty, but this measure helps only partially. The prices of food products grew. Yes, we are an agrarian country but we export raw material because our processing industry is very weak and this is not a problem of the past six months. We thus have to import food products,” Maia Sandu stated in the talk show “Prime Time” on PrimeTV channel.
President Sandu said the rise in citizens’ incomes is one of the instruments by which the Government can help the people maintain the purchasing power. The Government is designing a targeted mechanism for supporting families with low incomes in the 2022-2023 heating season.
“In the short run, we must help the people with low incomes. In winter, the Government provided subsidies for heat. Now it is working on a new, targeted program. We should not offer subsidies to those who have high incomes too. In the medium term, the solution is to develop the processing industry, to produce at home so that we do not export all the raw material, sometimes at low prices, and to later buy finished goods at higher prices. There are no signs that the inflation processes will moderate. The prices of energy resources do not show any sign that they will stabilize. On the contrary, they could rise as the next heating season is coming. The salaries and also the subsidies for those who are in need the most should be raised,” stated the official.
Earlier, Minister of Labor and Social Protection Marcel Spatari said that the Government will offer subsidies to the citizens to alleviate the impact of higher natural gas prices depending on the energy vulnerability level. The subsidies will be calculated according to the official incomes of the family, the number of family members and the heating method used in the cold period of the year.
