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Russian antitrust ruler to oppose fixed food prices

MOSCOW, September 09. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service will support a government decision to give the regional authorities a right to control food prices after the country has introduced a ban on food imports from the EU but it will not support fixed prices, Director Igor Artemyev told the Vedomosti business daily on Tuesday.

“There is a misconception that the regional authorities have no right to sign agreements with producers, that it limits competition and that this is prohibited by the antitrust legislation. The antitrust laws ban deals which lead to a price rise, and the deals to hold down or to cut prices are welcome because this is in the consumers’ interest,” he said.

Price reduction must be justified to avoid deficit, Artemyev said.

The main aim of this policy is to fend off the effect of consumers’ price growth expectations, Artemyev said. According to the official, this step proved efficient in 2007-2008.

“We must take the sanctions into consideration. We also know the forecast inflation in the country, and this is it. If we see that prices are soaring for real, we will analyze the market, compare prices,” he said.