He still doesn’t want to talk about broad “inflation takeaways,” i.e. higher price increases than are needed to offset inflation. ‘There are big differences between companies. We don’t have all the information about it.’
Last week, Rabobank released a study that showed that there was indeed a “grayflation.” Especially in the last quarter of last year, more profit was made than was needed to offset inflation. If companies had been more careful about price increases, they could have saved more than 2 percentage points on total inflation.
‘substantiation too thin’
But Rutte thinks Rabobank’s evidence is “too thin.” He thinks it’s okay if companies explain why they raise prices, after which the social discussion can continue. There are currently no plans to skim excess profits from supermarkets or banks, which have often made large profits. He did it for the oil companies. They made a lot of money because the price of gas had risen sharply due to the war in Ukraine. “You can’t blame Shell for that. But then we said: we want something in return».
Economy Minister Micky Adriaansens also spoke out against the term “high inflation” on Friday. He finds that word polarizing. Also, according to her, it’s not a problem. He also says there are big differences between companies.