Kaja Kallas expects energy companies to start rapidly reducing prices
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) said, that now electricity and gas prices have stabilized, she expects energy companies to start bringing prices down as quickly as they were previously going up.
"Something that has been on my mind quite a bit, is how the market economy we have works all together. It irritates me, both as prime minister and as an ordinary citizen. We remember, that when electricity costs, or energy costs were going up, everyone was quick to raise their own prices, pointing to these increases in energy or electricity prices," Kallas said at a government press conference
"However, now that gas and electricity are back to their pre-war (price) levels, I would expect those companies to actually start bringing prices down, according to the same rationale, and at the same speed. But for some reason, this is not happening," the Prime Minister continued.
"The same pattern, which we have seen time and time again, is being repeated. When prices rise on the world market, then, all of a sudden, it is immediately necessary to raise these prices (in Estonia), simply because prices on the world market are going up. Yet when they go down, somehow it takes a really long time," she added.
Kallas urged both the Competition Authority and consumers to be vigilant in this regard.
"In any case, a part of the blame needs to be placed with state-owned company heads and their supervisory boards for failure to consider the state's will and their due diligence," Kallas said, in reference to state-owned energy company Eesti Energia.
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Editor: Michael Cole