Food Item Prices To Increase

Prices of some food items are bound to increase as they are subject to global supply and demand factors.

Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama in a press statement today said the Interim Administration is doing all it can to ensure that the rise in food prices are contained and that ordinary members of the public are protected.

Commodore Bainimarama also revealed that due to the changing weather patterns we cannot escape the impact of the rise in wheat and wheat related prices.

However, he added that in the 2008 Budget the interim administration reduced the tax on most imported goods, exempted value added tax on 6 basic food items and have been carefully looking at applications for increase in prices for goods.

This follows the call from the Consumer Council of Fiji to put in place counter inflation measures to ensure the ordinary people are not largely affected.

The Bureau of Statistics revealed an increase of 3.6 percent in bakery, wheat products, and dairy products.

However, to the fact that locally grown farm produce have increased, Commodore Bainimarama said this cannot be avoided as Cyclone Gene had affected the local industry through flooding.

Meanwhile, Economist Doctor Mahendra Reddy said while the interim government had no direct control over this scenario, rising prices of specially imported food items is worsening the situation.