By Mustapha Jarju
Former Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs has advised Barrow’s administration to step up plans to address high prices in the country for better living standards.
Honorable Amadou Sanneh who was speaking to a local radio station called on the government of The Gambia to help address inflation saying the rapid hike in price of commodities is due to inflation.
“If our Ministry is telling us this is a global issue, that is to say, I don’t have a solution for you and I have no remedy for you. It is left to you; this is not how the government works. Inflation used to occur in different parts of the world but not at the same time and countries have different inflation rates, some are below as low as 4% and others high up to 30% or so based on how you manage your country`s economy,” he said.
According to him, from 2019, 2020 to 2021 the expenditure government is incurring is in the name of infrastructural projects, taking billions of loans pumping it into the country under all inflationary pressure.
“Flour which is made here and bread price being increased from D7 to D10 and now people are talking about D15 is not reasonable. Egg, which is mainly produced in this country, crate of egg which was D210 has escalated to D300. You cannot call that or explain it to be a global issue,” he expressed.
“The expensiveness of the price on the market is either meat or fish and consider the price of rice with minimum D2500 and at times D2800. This is hyperinflation not just inflation because it’s not moving from 2% to 5% prices are increasing by 40% to 50%, this government should make plans in terms of economic management to minimize the inflation that the country is facing but what the Gambians see and what they heard is that this is a global issue,” he stated.