Vučić's "miraculous margins" have been creating turbulence in stores in Serbia for half a year. The latest decision of the state, that less than a month before the expiration Regulations on special conditions for trading, "unfreezes" the purchase prices of food and other goods, which had been "on ice" since August 2025, immediately triggered an avalanche of higher invoices.
As "Vreme" learns, some suppliers sent some trade chains an average of seven percent higher prices for more than 600 different products. Traders will automatically increase the final price on the shelves for that difference, so as not to be in the red, and editorial sources say that these price increases will mostly start from March.
Bumerang
The increase in prices was inevitable as the state "trimmed" parts of the Regulation that it had passed and which they claimed would make life, or at least food, much cheaper for people in Serbia.
However, shortly after it was adopted, the regulation was "eased" almost every month, under the pressure of traders, suppliers, but also the European Union and the IMF, who were quite dissatisfied with the influence of the state in the free market of price movements.
The latest amendment, the fifth in less than half a year, changes one of its key elements - the freezing of purchase prices at the level found on August 1, 2025 is abolished, while the limit of trade margins to a maximum of 20 percent remains in force. The change in the Regulation, which "Vreme" first wrote about, was signed by its president on January 29, on behalf of the Government of Serbia. Đuro Macut.
The consequences are obvious, because now the purchase prices will be freely formed on the market. This is not revenge from suppliers, but simply their need to change the prices at which they sell goods to merchants, as most of them have gone up since August 2025. Explained in a simple way, if the purchase price of some food was 100 dinars before, a maximum margin of 20 percent was applied to it, so it cost 120 dinars in stores. Now, when the purchase price is "unlocked", many products will be more expensive, because the purchase prices have increased since August 2025. If now the purchase price costs 200 dinars for the same item, it will cost - 240 dinars on the shelves with a margin of 20 percent.
How much cheaper everything really was
The president of the state promised in the summer of 2025 from 15 to 20 percent lower food prices by adopting the Regulation on regulation of trade margins for 20.000 food and other products in markets. He did this while acknowledging that food and soft drink prices were at 95 percent of average prices Of the European Union, while the salaries are not that high.
He threatened chain stores not to agree on prices and was photographed countless times with baskets of food - on which he checks the cost of something. The Commission for the Protection of Competition initiated proceedings against certain chains due to alleged collusion on prices, but it did not receive any epilogue, nor was responsibility established.
The official figures also show that the results are not nearly as good. Republican Bureau of Statistics states that in September 2025, compared to the previous month, a drop in prices was recorded in the groups of food and non-alcoholic beverages, but by only 4,5 percent. The same figures offer from National Bank of Serbia, pointing out that the prices of vegetables were reduced by 14,9 percent, fruit by 8,2 percent, and processed food by an average of three percent.
However, it turns out, the poor do not live only on vegetables. Observed on a year-on-year basis, the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 1,7 percent in September. And there is another crucial figure - overall consumer prices in September increased by 2,9 percent compared to the same month of the previous year. Which would mean that food prices are rising throughout the year, and with Vučić's measures, we didn't get anything other than a slight slowdown in this growth and those 4,5 percent cheaper foods compared to the month before. We can only dream about the distant 15 to 20 percent.
The data for October was even worse. Compared to September, the prices of products and services increased by 0,5 percent, and the drop in prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages amounted to only 0,9 percent.
According to the Republic Institute of Statistics, in December 2025, compared to a year earlier, the prices of vegetables, a little bread and oil, and meat, fish and dairy products fell almost imperceptibly. The prices of drinks and fruits, and of coffee and cocoa, have risen significantly by almost 24 percent, which is a global problem.
