The government presented a package against inflation today. Probably the biggest measure is that profits from energy companies are skimmed off earlier and to a greater extent if they do not pass on price reductions.
“If energy suppliers do not immediately start lowering prices, then we as a republic will ask them to pay accordingly,” said Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) after the Council of Ministers.
The measures in the food sector are rather unspectacular. In the future, the government will regularly publish the purchase prices of food retailers in a transparency report based on defined foods.
Special session fixed
The special session of the National Council on the inflation problem requested by the SPÖ will take place on Friday. An urgent question or an urgent application is to be expected with the title “Total failure of the federal government in the fight against inflation”, as the parliamentary correspondence announced.
Badelt warns
Christoph Badelt, head of the Fiscal Council, had found clear words in the morning for the government’s fight against inflation. This should “please stop throwing out the money”. Again and again too many measures have been taken according to the watering can principle, one of them – the “much too large energy cost subsidy 2” – is even still running. Badelt warned in the Ö1 morning journal against spending more money on measures that get more people who don’t need it.
