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Burundi: Prices of Imported Commodities Rise Sharply
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Burundi Réalités (Bujumbura)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 25 March 2008
Bujumbura
Prices of imported commodities have risen sharply following the devaluation of the Burundi's currency. The prices of almost all the imported products including households' appliances have grown by 15 percent. While the world was facing the threat caused by the weakness of the dollar in comparison to the Euro, the Burundian currency continued to lose its value. Currently, a dollar is sold at circa 1,200 francs on the black market where foreign exchange bureaux have mushroomed uncontrollably. The dollar was sold at 1,108 francs in July 2007, and 1,167 in January 2008.
This rise of prices is a blow to Burundians whose purchasing power has enormously diminished following the last civil war that lasted a decade as well as the mismanagement of the country's assets. Despite the increase of the civil servants' salaries by 34 percent which went into effect in January 2008 after too much wrangling, its effect on the ground remains unnoticeable. Since the announcement of this increase of the civil servants' salaries in May 2007, prices of all commodities incessantly rose partly through increased taxes to increase revenues to cover the salary increase.
This rise coincides with the precariousness of the food security in the country. According to the estimates of the Agriculture ministry and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 600, 000 Burundians will depend on food aid. A survey that Agriculture ministry, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF, and the office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) jointly carried out showed a 486,000-tonne-deficit in food production thus hampering efforts to reach the food security in this country where more than 80 percent of the population depends on the agriculture for survival.
The government has remained silent over this economic crisis which may lead to a humanitarian crisis. In January, the brewing company, BRARUDI, raised the prices of beer and soft drinks without prior consultations with the ministry in charge of industries and commerce. Things are about to get worse as talks between oil importers and the ministry of industry and commerce are bound to result in higher gas prices which will further erode Burundians purchasing power.
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