(Prensa Latina) Panama, December 19 (Prensa Latina) The government will extend until June 2015 the price controls on food due to the good results obtained so far, said the Minister of Trade and Industry, Meliton Arrocha.
The senior official said to due to the assessments of the results of the emergency measure applied immediately after President Juan Carlos Varela took office on July 1, it has been decided to extend its application for six months starting January 2015.
There are maximum prices for 22 products including various cuts of beef, chicken, pork cutlet regular, rice, onion, yam, national potato and tomato, cassava, eggs, milk, lentils, macaroni, bread mold, beans, yellow cheese, sausage and tuna.
The government’s considerations after seeing the statistics is that the control increases the purchasing power of the people, allowing traders to rotate their inventory more frequently, earn higher incomes, and generate a competitive price to fall, he said.
Although Juan Carlos Varela pledged 58 dollars off the basic, 366-dollar, 50-product food basket, it actually decreased in $52.
However, if one takes into account the fifty products for which the price of the basket is measured, and the average price in June stood at $344, the total basket reflects only a reduction of barely $22.
Users demand that the list of 22 controlled products is extended to all 50 of the basket to achieve the promised 58-dollar savings.