19 October, Minsk /BelTA Correspondent/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko sees no grounds for further significant price increases on food products. He stated this at a meeting on 18 October, BelTA was informed by the press service of the Belarusian leader. "Many say: prices, prices are rising, let's tighten them. This should not be done at all now. Yes, we need to control it so that there is no 'unruliness', but it's not even about 'unruliness'. Prices are at a level where they have already hit consumer demand. Prices cannot rise further," the head of state noted. "We are, in fact, living in a kind of boom-crisis world, if you look at the world around. And what we have gone through is a plus for us. We have already been through it. Our people have already been through it, they have endured it, they have tolerated it. They will have to go through it. We will not get through it without costs, as we see," the President admitted. "Well, yes, we can stop prices tomorrow. And what are the prices for milk, meat? This is the salary of the peasants. And we have actually equalized them for the first time. You don't need to make claims to me anymore regarding any price factor. Yes, there is some beef somewhere - but these are trifles. And those who do not take advantage of the current situation, I mean the peasants, will be in trouble. And Mikhail Rusy is already saying that the situation with loan repayments is more or less normal. That is, we have given our producers the opportunity to cope with this indebtedness. This is also a great thing," the Belarusian leader emphasized. "But they really want to incite the people to overthrow the country. The first attempt failed, the so-called 'people's assembly' - 120 people gathered. People understand this, but we must show them the prospect. They must see that now everything can be tightened, screwed down, but tomorrow the shelves will be empty. This should not be done under any circumstances," Alexander Lukashenko believes. Addressing the heads of regions, the President urged them to solve the issue of improving citizens' well-being not only at the presidential level: "Let's not only increase it at my level by decree, but also there, on the ground. You know better whom to support. And force the directors to support their workers at this time, depending on labor productivity." The President also stressed that the strategy of action has been determined. "We have a thousand options on how to do it. We have chosen these options. We are not given others today," Alexander Lukashenko concluded. -0-

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