While state monopoly and interest groups exist, there are no real market prices

Although this week saw an increase in the prices of oil and oil derivatives, this will not cause a rise in the prices of products and services, according to Mesud Lakota from the Association of Consumers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

The market in Bosnia and Herzegovina has transitioned to the formation of free prices, but we have a monopoly both from the state and from certain companies, so it is unrealistic to expect market stabilization, said Mesud Lakota.

- If you have a single monopoly dictating prices, then it is unrealistic to demand price reductions. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the biggest role in this is played by interest groups and lobbies, and the disorganization of the market is reflected in the lack of healthy competition - said Lakota.

He believes that the absence of strategies at any level is one of the reasons for this situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

- We are talking about a strategy in all areas and its goals. We do not know how many potatoes we need to feed the population, how much water, which is constantly imported. There is no one to say the market is saturated, we cannot import anymore - said Lakota.

Lakota is of the opinion that if there had been a clear strategy in agriculture, someone would have predicted the floods, so attention would have been paid to the population's needs for flour, rather than as now we have 30% of needs, and the rest must be imported.

- That is why we have market disorganization, high prices, unemployment, social problems - concluded Lakota.