Malasia: Monopolies causing high prices

While mentioning that Malaysians should question why their income had not increased, they should also question how the prices of goods have not been reduced, said vocal Raub MP Datuk Mohamad Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz.In his blog Sakmongkol AK47, he asked the government to break monopolies and open the market for other imported food while noting that “prices are sticky downwards”.He said the Padi Beras Nasional Sdn Bhd (Bernas), garlic and onions monopolies needed to go while the supply of other foods needed to be increased.“The Umno-led government had already destroyed our economy and ruined our economic credibility which caused the cost of imports to increase. The ringgit trades about RM3.60-RM3.63 to US$1. So if we import in US dollar, everything we import becomes more expensive,” he said, while asking why the government had not strengthened the ringgit. We should boycott a government that is incompetent in managing our economy.”He said according to Malaysian Department of Statistics (DoS) the consumer price index is up 2.7% in December.“Food and beverages (non-alcoholic) went up an average 2.4% and even ‘kangkong’ was not spared as it went up 2.8%,” he said.