Skopje, 15 August 2025 (MIA) - Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Friday they would not tolerate behavior by certain supermarket chains, which attempt to circumvent laws "through hidden marketing".

"In discussions with experts on this topic, we have concluded that the main driver are the marketing services, which have increased by more than 20 percent in certain sectors. The Government does not have much maneuvering room in this regard. Nevertheless, we will do everything to ease the burden on the family budget, as is the case with the school supplies. Analyses have shown that the margin caps spill over to the subsequent months, so our dilemma is that if we set up this cap for a period of one year, does this constitute a market economy? This does not mean that we will tolerate the behavior of certain supermarket chains, which attempt to circumvent laws through hidden marketing," PM Mickoski told reporters.

Mickoski said the Commission for Protection of Competition will soon come out and issue sanctions for hidden marketing services.

"We will go out and heavily sanction these hidden 'marketing services', which some suppliers, producers and traders use in the supermarket chains, so their product is placed in a much better spot," noted Mickoski.

Another way, he added, is to intervene in the part of services.

"Our options are limited here as well. We cannot restrict restaurants, cafés or transport companies in setting their prices for a certain service. As long as there is someone who can pay for that service, they will, unfortunately, increase it and thus have a negative impact on inflation. Measures will be undertaken in this aspect," said Mickoski.

The PM added that future reasoning regarding wages will take into account productivity.

"Linking productivity to increasing wages. Yes, this can result in political consequences for us, some will be dissatisfied, but this is better than citizens facing uncontrolled inflation on the long run. This is a more comprehensive approach that we expect to produce big results in the medium term," underlined Mickoski.

MIA file photo