24 April 2008
Maputo — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza declared on Thursday that Mozambique "is in crisis because of the continued increase in the price of oil and of basic consumer goods which the country has to import".
He was speaking to hundreds of members of the Maputo association of informal traders, as part of his current tour of the capital. He noted that the over the past week the oil price in New York has approached 120 dollars a barrel. This leads to increased transport costs, which in turn pushes up the prices of other basic goods.
Added to this was the spiraling cost of grain on the world market, Guebuza said. Thus the price of rice had doubled in the past two years.
To slow down increases in the cost of living, Guebuza thought it was imperative to increase the production of whatever can be produced inside Mozambique. Although Mozambique could do nothing about the price of imported oil , it should be able to reduce the impact of higher international food prices, by increasing the domestic production of rice and other grains.
He dismissed claims that the crisis was endogenous, caused by alleged inefficiencies or mismanagement by the Mozambican government. "Of course we're in crisis", he said. "How could we not be in crisis, when there is no end to the rise in the cost of a barrel of oil, and when the price of rice and other basic goods is also constantly rising"..
The informal sector, on which so many people depend for their food purchases, should also play its part, said the President, calling on vendors not to hike their prices.
"You have a great responsibility because you feed the people who live in this city", he said. "They look to you for their sustenance, so you have to coordinate your strategy properly. You must overcome the preconceptions that divide you and the City Council so that you can find a solution". (The Council has been on a footing of sporadic warfare with unlicensed street sellers, who frequently sell their wares in inappropriate places, and refuse to occupy vacant stalls in the municipal markets).
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