Inflation and high commodity prices hurting everyone

August 13, 2022

HURFOM: Since early August, 2022, the inflation rate has risen dramatically, which has led to higher prices for basic commodities. Rice, cooking oil, chili and onions are three times their normal price.

“Commodity prices are really high — a daily worker earning 5,000 Kyat a day can’t feed three of his family members. People have to struggle just to buy food. The income and outcome are imbalanced. I have to go to work on my bike rather than consider buying gasoline. It’s a really tough life,” said a daily worker.

Because the military junta controls the US dollar and import market, most importers are facing huge losses. Some have to stop their trading, according to the Thai product importers.

“We’ve been selling Thai products for a long time. We’ve never experienced a situation as bad as this. Thai currency has a good price while the Myanmar Kyat has no value so we have to pay three times the amount for a product. Then, our customers can’t afford it. So the products are left over at our store. It is not possible to make a profit through imports now, without suffering a loss. If the inflation rate continues to rise, we will have to close our store,” said a Thai product importer.

There is also another gasoline shortage that has occurred, which is adding additional pain to all sectors.

“Not only is the price of gasoline getting higher but there is a shortage of gasoline. If we want to buy gasoline, we have to go to the city. But we can buy with limitations. We can’t buy as much as we want. The situation is really bad in some rural areas,” said a person who lives in a rural area.

As of August 11, 2022, 16.6 grams of gold priced at 2.5 million Kyat while one US dollar is equivalent to 2,750 Kyat.

Written by Modinator · Filed Under News