Business

Food inflation beyond national control: Shaikh

Minister underlines need for sharing best practices to boost productivity.

May 06, 2011

HANOI:

Federal Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said that food inflation should be looked at in a wider perspective, including impact of energy prices, which is beyond national control.

He stated this on Thursday while addressing the Governors Round Table meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), inaugurated by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Shaikh said that the challenge of inflation in the region and its vulnerability to volatile oil and commodity prices were affecting the Asian economy. He asked ADB to come up with various options for managing inflation and capital flows, both nationally and globally.

The finance minister also spoke about the new growth strategy being formulated by Pakistan, which would result in enhancement of productivity.

He said that as a result of right price incentives, Pakistan was expecting a bumper wheat crop and emphasised the need for sharing regional best practices for increasing productivity.

Shaikh also held meetings with Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda and Chinese Vice Finance Minister Young Li. During these meetings, he discussed matters of mutual interest and future plans.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (1)

Meekal Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply A lot of countries have to cope with the issue of food inflation and it was the flash-point of the Arab Spring. Yet it is not enough to say we can't do anything about it. We can. Work on the supply-side. Improve marketing channels; make a pretense if nothing else to crack down on smugglers and hoarders, the CCP should swing into action and conduct raids on warehouses and watch out for predatory pricing, etc. Food exports are more tricky to deal with. Bans/quota's don't work. Provide incentives to sell in the domestic market. There is always a way.

Replying to X