There is a possibility for raising the pensions due to the increase of the food and fuel prices, according to Bulgaria's Finance Minister Simeon Djankov.

"This type of methodology is very popular and has been implemented in the past in other European countries. We can easily implement it as well but we have to see what the tendency is, of course," Djankov said on Wednesday in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television.

In his words, usually the most affected citizens by the increase of prices of food and fuel are pensioners and people who have low-paid jobs.

Djankov once again stated his firm decision not to increase the minimum monthly wage, as insisted by the Bulgarian Labor Minister Totyu Mladenov, who proposed the wage to go up by BGN 30 and reach BGN 270 from the summer.

According to the finance minister, the creation of an expert group for monitoring the food prices would not help much to control the price hikes.

"There is a global tendency for increase of food prices. January and February registered the biggest food price hike in 20 years. But the answer to this should be with long-term plans of the respective governments. I do not think that an additional agency will do much to solve this problem," Djankov said.

Easrlier on Wednesday, Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov announced that the government has created a working group of experts for monitoring the food prices.

The group will include representatives of the Agriculture, Finance, Economy and Interior Ministries, the State Commission on Commodity Exchanges and Market Places, Commission for Protection of Competition, Consumer Protection Commission and the Food Safety Agency.

The newly created unit is expected to start operating in 1-2 months. It will monitor the process of basic food products on the whole chain raw material-processing-trade.

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