“Food prices will remain elevated’ – Roberts doesn’t expect immediate relief as inflation imported” – The Nassau Guardian – Thursday, June 22, 2023

Excerpt from this article; “Super Value food store chain owner Rupert Roberts said yesterday that notwithstanding all the creative measures employed by buyers in the grocery store industry, particularly within his establishment, food prices will likely remain elevated into next year and will probably continue to rise.

Roberts said the only commodity that he sees going down right now is corned beef.

“Most of the other commodities have gone up,” he said.

“Sugar went up $3 a bale; rice is up. Most commodities have gone up.

“Now, in the next 18 months, I hope they remain the same, but they are likely to go up again.

“So, I don’t know what’s fueling it, but we tripled up on orders from China … and, of course, the freight rates from China have actually come down. We locked in the prices on the China goods at least until the end of this year.

“All of the inflation hasn’t really shown in this country because when we suspect something, we buy [to lock in lowest prices]. We have a 100,000-square-foot warehouse now. Our warehouse is probably a little less than half full, and so we have a lot of opportunity to buy. We have space. We have storage.”

The Budget Debate has wrapped up and to my knowledge this subject; that of some sort of immediate relief to the average Bahamian shopper has not been addressed.

There was a lot to say about the New Cruse Port deal and how it was such a “bad deal for The Bahamas but no one seemed willing or able to offer any immediate solutions to the impact that inflation is having on the average working class of the country.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) New Day government has bragged about their two “major accomplishments” as it concerns the working class; these being the increase of the average wage from two-hundred and ten dollars ($210) to two-hundred and sixty dollars ($260) and the decrease in Value-Added Tax (VAT) to ten percent (10%) but they also seemed unable to show how this decrease along with the addition of VAT to breadbasket items and mediation; which were once exempt from VAT, has benefited the people of the country.

It would appear that the general consensus “on the ground” beside the concerns about immigration and crime is inflation, as revealed by Fred Mitchell, Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), Minister of Foreign Affairs and the member of parliament for Fox Hill;

“Speaking in the House of Assembly recently during the 2023/2024 budget debate, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, the MP for Fox Hill, said inflation is clearly the number one issue faced by Bahamians and he is seeing more requests for help from constituents than he has ever seen in his time in politics.

“… It seems to me, I know people say that crime and immigration are issues which concern them, but it seems to me right now that inflation has got to be the number one issue that’s affecting people because the cost of everything has become more expensive,” Mitchell said.”

The New Day government cannot claim that they did not know of this being a major problem when they came into office, as we all knew – if we were paying attention that we were about to go through a round economic period coming out of the pandemic; even as the world began to open up and the economy begun to rebound.

It would appear that the New Day government spent an entire budget debate applying his common tactics of deflection and “smoke and mirrors to’ have the public not notice that they are actually failing the people of The Bahamas, as the double down and make even more promises on the top of those that they made during the campaign season.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END