After multiple discussions, Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Economy and Industry Minister Orna Barbivai agreed on Monday to allow a rise in the price of bread.
Earlier this month, Barbivai blamed an increase in the global price of wheat and flour due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — one of the world’s main exporters of grain.
She said at the time that she had asked officials to “continue to monitor world wheat and flour prices,” and promised that as the prices of raw materials become cheaper, she would “require the Price Committee to reduce the price of bread.”
But it seems the Price Committee had other plans, recommending a 36 percent price hike on the basic food staple, to take effect by the end of this calendar year.
Lapid’s office told reporters Monday evening, however, that by December 2022, the price of basic bread will increase by 21 percent “for three months only.”
The immediate price increase will affect three types of bread:
- The price of sliced standard bread will increase by 5.5 percent.
- The price of challah will increase by 8 percent.
- The price of standard bread will increase by 5 percent.
Lapid made no promises about future price increases; in December, an additional price hike will raise the cost of sliced standard bread and challah in accordance with a decision by the Prices Committee.
“The prices of white bread and sliced white bread will not increase,” the PMO added.
Consumers may have to look ahead to another price increase next year as well, because all types of bread are to be removed from supervision in April 2023.
The prime minister instructed the Finance Ministry and the Welfare and Social Services Ministry to act to increase the budget for food security in order to ease the burden on lower-income families.
However, that is unlikely to provide any relief for those who are referred to as the “working poor” — those whose incomes are just high enough to disqualify them from assistance, but not high enough to help them make ends meet.
