Monetary Council mandates establishment of working group to tackle rising cost of living
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| St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas (right) and Prime Minister of Dominica, Hon. Roosevelt Skerritt (photo by Erasmus Williams) |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, OCTOBER 16TH 2007 (CUOPM) – As the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis grapples with the high cost of living, the Monetary Council of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (EECB) has mandated the establishment of a working group to investigate the matter and make urgent recommendations.
Council members at the 60th Meeting under the Chairmanship of Anguilla’s Minister of Finance, Hon. Victor Banks spent a considerably amount of time last Friday at its Headquarters in St. Kitts and discussed the issue of inflation which it was felt should be raised to a higher level of priority at the regional level.
Council noted that the current inflationary pressures were largely fuelled by external shocks including the rising price of oil and imported food items as well as the falling value of the US dollar.
“Council noted that the matter was one of great concern to member governments and the public in general. Members also shared the various measures which had been taken at the domestic level,” said the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
The statement said that cognisant of the critical implications of high and rising prices to standards of living, Council mandated the establishment of a working group comprising officials of relevant ministries at the national level, the OECS and the ECCB, to further investigate the matter and to make urgent recommendations for short and medium term measures to address the issue.
The Council Meeting at the ECCB Headquarters here in St. Kitts was attended by the Hon. Victor Banks, Minister of Finance, Anguilla (Chairman); Dr. the Hon. Errol Cort, Minister of Finance, Antigua and Barbuda; Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister and Ministry of Finance, Commonwealth of Dominica; Dr. the Hon. Lowell Lewis, Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Montserrat; Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, St. Kitts and Nevis; Hon. Stephenson King, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Saint Lucia; Dr. the Hon. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Mr. Lennox Andrews, Permanent Secretary (Ag), Ministry of Finance, Grenada.~~Adz:Right~~
The St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party Cabinet recently discussed and approved a list of basic food and non-food items to comprise a basket of goods for price control in an effort to reduce the cost of living.
The basket approved and established consists of fruits and vegetables, chicken parts, frozen fish, corn meal, flour, milk, margarine, pasta products, cheese, sardines, crackers, cereals, toothpaste, cooking oil, peas and beans, rice, corned beef, toilet paper, disposable diapers, and medicines for allergy, hypertension, asthma, diabetes and eye conditions. The price of refrigerators, stoves and mattresses up to certain limited sizes will also be regulated.
The Denzil Douglas Labour Government has also reiterated its committed to the revision of a number of pieces of legislation to improve the consumer protection regime in the Federation, so that price control of basic items is only one facet of the exercise.
Bakers in St. Kitts and Nevis recently agreed with the efforts of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Government not to increase the price of baked goods.
After three weeks of negotiations, Government has reached an agreement with local bakers on the price of bread and other baked goods consumed by the local public. Bakers had cited the cost of flour had increased and that there needed to be a commensurate increase in the price of baked products.
However Government said it was pleased to inform the public in St. Kitts and Nevis that despite the increase in the cost of flour purchased from overseas, bakers have agreed to hold the prices of baked goods constant until the end of the first quarter of next year, 2008.
Photo: St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas (right) and Prime Minister of Dominica, Hon. Roosevelt Skerritt (photo by Erasmus Williams)
