State regulators insisted on Wednesday that external factors were behind recent increases in the retail prices of some foodstuffs and fuel in Armenia.
The State Commission on the Protection of Economic Commission (SCPEC) said it has arrived at this conclusion after scrutinizing the increased costs of butter, meat and gasoline.
The butter price hike has been particularly drastic. It has soared by 35 percent since January, according to SCPEC estimates.
“The rise in international butter prices began in May last year,” said the commission chairman, Artak Shaboyan. “The butter prices have risen by about 120 percent in the international markets since then.”
Butter is mostly imported to Armenia from New Zealand by a limited number of companies. Shaboyan insisted that they did not abuse their dominant positions in the market.
The country is far less dependent on imports of meat, which has also become more expensive. Echoing statements by Agriculture Minister Ignati Arakelian, Shaboyan blamed that on recent months’ sharp increase in Armenian exports of cattle and sheep to the Middle East.
According to the National Statistical Service (NSS), those exports soared by 62 percent to $35 million in January-August 2017.
There has also been a nearly 5 percent rise in the prices of gasoline. Fuel imports to Armenia have long been monopolized by a handful of firms owned by government-linked individuals.
Shaboyan said an SCPEC inquiry has found that the fuel price rise results from higher oil prices, rather than the importers’ desire to make extra profits. Speaking at a public discussion in Yerevan, he also denied the existence of monopolies in this market.
Some participants of the discussion, notably deputy parliament speaker Mikael Melkumian, questioned the official explanation for the price hikes. Melkumian claimed that the cost of other products such as some construction materials has also gone up of late because the authorities are forcing businesses to pay more taxes in order to “fill the state budget.”