The Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) has expressed concerns over the impacts of the prolonged political conflicts on production costs and inflation rate.
According to the FPO, political demonstrations have recently pushed cooking gas price upward and are likely to force prices of ready-to-eat meals to increase soon. The Fuel Tariff (Ft) rate on electricity is also on a rising trend, further shoving the production costs of various goods and services, leading to a speculation that the nation may face a general inflation rate of 2.5% this year.
The FPO stated that March’s inflation rate increased by 0.22% while the non-alcohol beverage index shot up 0.45%, and non-food index jumped 0.10% due to the above mentioned factors.
The FPO indicated that the political factors have slowed down the economic performance, hauling the local business confidence level to below the standard 50 points, reducing household spending, and diminishing purchasing power and sales of agricultural products.
