Volgograd residents complain about sharp rise in food prices

After January 1, Volgograd has seen a sharp rise in foodstuff prices, townspeople report.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that sharp fluctuations of the rouble exchange rate observed last November and December provoked panic in some regions of Southern Russia. The fears about increase of prices after the New Year holidays have confirmed, said the residents of Volgograd questioned by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Basically, prices on daily-demand foodstuffs have gone up, Nadezhda Mironova, a pensioner, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"I used to buy sugar for 38 roubles per kilo; now it is over 50. The flour price has almost doubled – it was 36 roubles per kilo, now it costs 70 roubles. Eggs have become expensive; you can still buy cheap milk, but of the lowest quality only. I don't see a jump of prices for bread yet, but I think it will happen soon," said the woman.

In their turn, retail chains tried to prevent a sharp jump in prices, said Nikolai Lukyanenko, a Deputy of the Volgograd Regional Duma.

"Only after the New Year holidays, we saw a rise in prices, which could have happened as early as the start of December. When signing their contracts, network retailers always consider their suppliers' price increase within 2-3 weeks. To their credit, they kept the market. In fact, the price rise, by and large, happened back in December; it was caused by the economic situation, mainly, by introduction of sanctions," the Deputy told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.