Context: The Prime Minister of Belarus, Aliaksandr Turchyn, signed a Council of Ministers’ resolution setting gas prices, electricity and heat tariffs for the population. According to the document, tariffs will increase on March 1, 2026. Gas prices will rise by 7.07%, while electricity tariffs will increase by 7%. They also plan to increase the heat tariff by 7.3% on June 1.
The anchor of the CTV news programme 24 chasa stated that Poland is experiencing a rapid rise in food prices. In a broadcast on February 25, 2026, she said:
“The cost of the basic food basket has increased by 1.6% in the last week alone. Some goods have risen in price by particularly noticeable amounts: potatoes by 10%, wheat flour by 7%, and sugar by 5%. The average cost of basic groceries is now 113 zlotys — more than $31. The price rise has been ongoing for several months. Back in November last year, the cost of the grocery basket exceeded the psychological threshold of 100 zlotys for the first time.”
The Weekly Top Fake team traced the origin of the 113-zloty figure. This is a reference to the Polish app PanParagon, which tracks the weekly cost of the same grocery basket based on supermarket prices. It now does cost around 113 zlotys, which is slightly higher than a week ago. However, CTV did not mention that the same basket cost almost the same amount a year ago — 112.5 zlotys. In other words, the cost of the basket increased by less than one zloty over the year, around 0.5%.
If we take a broader view, we can see that two years ago at this time, the same grocery basket cost about 105 zlotys. It turns out that the price of the grocery basket has risen by about 7% in two years — an increase, but not one that can be described as “rapid”, as the presenter said on air. Such fluctuations are largely due to seasonality. Throughout the year, prices rise and fall. An increase in prices in January or February may be part of normal seasonal fluctuations, with prices often decreasing in the summer.
For comparison, food prices in Belarus have increased by around 15% over the same two years, according to Belstat.