Prices rocket in ‘land of no inflation’

Press, 2 July 1979, Page 8

Prices rocket in ‘land of no inflation’

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Some of the good things in life became dearer for the Soviet consumer at the weekend as the Kremlin slapped price rises of up to 50 per cent on furs, cars, gold jewellery, and other hard-to-find goods.

The price rises had been widely forecast in advance and Muscovites scoured the shops on Saturday to stock up in advance after hearing that things would be dearer today. Gold and silver jewellery, a traditional form of husbanding wealth in many areas of the Soviet Union, will go up by 50 per cent. But people who go to the dentist for gold false teeth—also widely popular — will still pay the same price. And as a concession to romance, couples marrying for the first time will receive 70 roubles ($105). double the previous amount, as a grant towards their gold wedding rings

Also shooting up by half as much again are carpets, rugs, furs, and sheepskin coats — ail of them items which are in Soviet jargon ’ deficit” or frequently unobtainable

imported furniture, which: comet mostly from Eastern; Europe and is highly prized,! will cost 30 per cent more and Soviet furniture 10 per cent more, according to the official announcement carried by the Tass news agency. Furniture and carpets are nortnal'v sold on a subscription svstem under -which the Soviet shopper queues to put down his nr her name on an

order list and then comes to claim the furniture several months later. The blow which will probably hit the aspiring middleclass Soviet family hardest will be an average 18 per cent rise in the cost of a private car. Tass did not spell out the rises for each individual model, but the new price for the Italian-designed Zhiguli saloon, sold in the west as the Lada, is expected to be in the region of 6000 roubles ($9000). The average monthly wage is only 162 roubles ($226). But the roughly IM cars sold annually fail to meet demand and most buyers have to wait some years. Evening prices in restaurants and cafes will go up between 25 and 45 per cent, a surcharge apparently aimed at thinning out the queues of diners waiting on the pavement for a table. The shortage of good restaurants and cafes is most acute in Moscow, where the authorities say they are hoping things will improve in time for next summer’s influx of Olympic tourists. Beer in restaurants will increase by an average of 45 per cent, but food and drink prices in more modest establishments such as canteens and snack bars will stay the same.

The last round of consumer price increases in the Soviet Union, which has always said it has no inflation, came in March, 1978, when the cost of petrol doubled, coffee went up 300 per cent, and alcohol, chocolate, and iewellerv all became dearer.