The continuous strengthening of the Australian and NZ dollar against the Fijian dollar is not good news for Fiji consumers as we import a lot of items from these countries.
With all these factors coming into play, indications are that the prices of imported items will continue to rise or remain high.
Economist and Chairman of the Commerce Commission, Doctor Mahendra Reddy said this is the reality of the situation.
And do not expect the price of imported food items and fuel to go down any time soon as inflation continues to rise internationally.
Doctor Reddy said the devaluation of the dollar and several global factors now in play means that we are at the mercy of changes of prices at the global level.
He said the commission is responsible for setting price controls for about 5 percent of the items sold in the supermarkets, and it is difficult to stabilize the prices due to increasing costs.
Doctor Reddy said that they have managed to keep the prices of certain brands of the basic food items low.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
Feature
Aust/NZ dollar strengthening against Fiji dollar not a good news
