Despite the seasonal decline in prices for food products, since the beginning of this year a double-digit price increase has been noted for onions, carrots, beets, lamb and beef. This was announced today by the Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Timur Suleimenov during the Government meeting.
The meeting reviewed data on the inflation rate for 9 months and planned measures to contain it by the end of this year, the IA “Kazakh-Zerno” reports.
Minister Timur Suleimenov reported that since the beginning of the year, inflation has slowed in the republic. In September of this year, inflation was 0.3%, and only since the beginning of the year – 4.2%. The main factors of the slowdown were stabilization of the situation in the foreign exchange market, moderate inflation expectations of the market, as well as an increase in output by main types of food products.
Thus, food prices have been falling for the last 3 consecutive months. At the same time, prices and tariffs for paid services are growing at a moderate pace.
“Despite the seasonal decline in prices for food products, since the beginning of this year a double-digit price increase has been noted for onion, carrots, beets, lamb and beef. At the same time, double-digit price declines were recorded in eggs, buckwheat, cabbage, sugar and sunflower oil, “the minister said.
To mitigate these risks, the Government will take preventive measures to prevent unjustified price increases and tariffs on socially important food products and services.
In this regard, akims of the regions together with the Ministry of Agriculture were instructed to provide a sufficient supply of basic food products in the Regional Stabilization Funds. Also conduct daily monitoring of prices and effectively use the resources of stabilization funds to prevent a deficit and saturation of the market with socially important foodstuffs.
Taking into account the above-mentioned preventive measures, the inflation rate for the year 2017 is expected in the range of 6.9-7.5%, which corresponds to the planned level.
