On March 26 this year, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, a regular meeting was held on the execution of the instructions of the Head of State and the Operational Action Plan to stabilize the socio-economic situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Over the past week (March 19-25 this year), Kazakhstan recorded a 1.7% increase in prices for socially significant food products.
Since the beginning of the year, the increase in prices for NWT amounted to 9.9%. Cabbage — 11%, onion 9.3%, sugar — 6.3%, potatoes — 4.7%, carrots — 3.3%, chicken egg — 1.7% rose the most in a week. The maximum average increase in the prices of NWT for the week was allowed in the city of Almaty and Karaganda region by 3.5%, Turkestan region – 2.5%, Zhambyl region – 2.2%.
According to the reports of monitoring groups, in the Republic of Kazakhstan, checks were carried out on compliance by entrepreneurs with the permissible 15% retail surcharge on NWT. As a result of inspections for a week across the country, 749 violations were revealed – facts of exceeding the permissible retail allowance for socially significant food products. The excess of trade surcharges on NWPT is most in sugar — up to 40%, sunflower oil – up to 35%, and vegetables – 25%. In order to prevent unjustified price increases, keep inflation within acceptable limits and ensure macroeconomic stability over the past week in the country, the work of monitoring groups has been expanded from the level of cities of republican significance and regions to the level of districts.
According to the Prime Minister’s instructions on the need to conclude advance contracts for the supply of early vegetables from the Turkestan region, 9 regions of Kazakhstan have already signed contracts and allocated money for the supply of early cabbage. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Republic of Kazakhstan has formed sufficient reserves of NWT, which as of March 24, 2022 amount to about 1.1 million tons. In particular, potato stocks amount to 380 thousand tons, with an early harvest forecast in excess of 170 thousand tons; 32 thousand tons of cabbage are in storage. Sugar reserves today are 34.5 thousand tons (the average annual demand of the country is about 44 thousand tons), plus 30 thousand tons of raw sugar for further processing.
As part of the antitrust response measures, 8 investigations have been initiated and are being conducted on a wholesale supplier of chicken meat (Kostanay region), producers of chicken eggs (Karaganda, Akmola, Pavlodar, North Kazakhstan regions), a wholesale supplier (Aktobe region), producers of ammonium nitrate (Mangystau region) and ammophos (Almaty). During the week, one warning was issued — Almaty region, Foodmastertrade Company LLP and 3 notifications: in the Pavlodar region, producers of buckwheat Grano-PV LLP and Tsarskaya Porridge LLP, as well as wholesale sugar supplier in Almaty Sakharprom Kazakhstan LLP. The Prime Minister noted that the Ministry of Agriculture needs to strengthen the coordination of the distribution of NWT reserves. In addition to considering the situation with the control of prices for NWT, a report by the Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development K. was heard during the meeting. Uskenbayeva on the execution of the instructions of the Head of State on improving the efficiency of special economic zones. Summing up the meeting, Alikhan Smailov instructed the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development, together with the heads of regions, to further analyze the effectiveness and identify priority areas of the FEZ.