NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Prime Minister Philip Davis yesterday urged Bahamians to be vigilant and frugal in the months ahead as forecasters predict further instability due to global inflation.
“There was a meeting of Central Bank governors very recently and they’re predicting that it’s going to get a bit worse before it gets better even though there are signs that are so inherently contradictory,” Davis said.
“When you look at all of what I call the economic indices that speaks to whether inflation is going to be stabilized and or it’s going to be a runaway horse as it has been and from their prognosis, it seems that we are in for yet a rough ride for another few months.”
Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that inflation this year will hit 9.5 percent in emerging markets and developing economies like The Bahamas.
The IMF’s World Economic Report — titled “Gloomy and More Uncertain” cited further negative spillovers from the war in Ukraine; higher-than-expected inflation worldwide and a worse-than-anticipated slowdown in China as reasons for its revision to its global economic growth projections.
The IMF also reduced its growth expectation for 2022 to 3.2 percent which is about half a percentage point lower than what it had previously predicted.
Meanwhile last week, Super Value’s chief financial officer Debra Symonette said although the food store chain is doing its best to keep the price of goods affordable for local consumers, “the increases are absolutely necessary”.
Symonette said that consumers could expect to see price increases in tomato-based products, rice, sugar, flour, and cooking oil while noting that supply chain issues persist.
Super Vaue’s perishable buyer Clifton Fernander noted that consumers could also expect a hike in the cost of meat and poultry, with increases as high as 40 percent for hams and turkeys.
Fernander told Eyewitness News that the government’s decision to reduce the duty on chicken imports has allowed the food store chain to keep prices stable and reduce prices in some instances.
Yesterday, Davis said: “We just have to continue to watch and try to do the things that we can do. A lot of it is beyond our control and all we can do is just work with what we can control.
Davis added: “I’ll advise that [Bahamians] be vigilant, be frugal, and let us work together to combat the challenges that we have for inflation.”
