PM: Some prices have fallen ‘by more than 50 per cent’
THE prices of “many” products, including food, fruit and vegetables, have fallen by “more than 50 per cent”, Prime Minister Faiz Sucuoğlu claimed on Monday.
Writing on his personal Facebook page, Dr Sucuoğlu said that the government’s primary duty is to create a “strong financial structure, a sound economy” and to “increase the citizens’ purchasing power”.
Stating that he had a series of meetings with the Marketers’ Union and other sector representatives and underlined that prices should be reduced, Dr Sucuoğlu claimed that his stance had been “reflected” in Sunday market prices “to a large extent”, adding: “Many products, foods, fruits and vegetables have become cheaper by more than 50 per cent.”
Dr Sucuoğlu also said that he and his officials will continue to “carefully monitor the market environment and other basic consumer goods” regarding this issue.
He said that he had seen the “positive effects” of the increase made in public sector salaries and the minimum wage in terms of busier markets and noted that the government has been “closely following the dramatic increase in vegetable and food prices” and had carried out “their first intervention”.
Dr Sucuoğlu did not specify which products have fallen in price by more than 50 per cent. The official annual inflation rate in the TRNC
is 53.36 per cent. Prices rose by an average of 5.48 per cent in January compared to December. The product that had the biggest price fall in January was lettuce, down by 32.24 per cent.
The PM’s price drop claims were met by incredulity by some who responded to his social media post. One person said that they had seen no such price reductions, while another asked if the PM is “living in the same country as us”.