The Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, issued a statement on October 30, 2025, addressed to the owners and managers of supermarkets and hypermarkets. This statement comes in response to consumer complaints denouncing excessive price increases in several stores, amidst post-election tensions.
“You have allegedly taken advantage of the post-election context to carry out abusive and unjustified price increases for products displayed on the shelves of your retail spaces ,” writes the minister, who calls for an immediate return to approved prices.
Faced with these practices deemed speculative, the Ministry of Commerce instructed the National Brigade for the Control and Repression of Fraud, as well as its regional offices, to conduct raids on the establishments concerned. The objective: “to reach an agreement with management for a return, without delay, to ante prices ,” the statement specifies.
These operations aim to protect household purchasing power in an economic context marked by rising living costs and social tensions following the presidential election of October 12.
According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the rise in consumer prices observed in September is mainly explained by the increase in the prices of food products — notably bread, cereals, fish, vegetable oils and sugar — as well as by the rise in transport costs, themselves influenced by the evolution of the price of fuel.
Other factors exacerbate the situation: energy inflation, high production costs, and the impact of external shocks on imported goods. Local products are not spared, as their manufacture often depends on imported raw materials.
Post-election tensions also impacted consumer behavior. Fearing shortages, many households rushed to supermarkets to stock up, leading to a temporary surge in demand.
Some retailers have reportedly taken advantage of the situation to raise their prices, a practice the Minister of Commerce intends to firmly curb. “The law will be applied in all its rigor against offenders ,” he warned, according to a source close to the ministry.
