HCMC – The HCMC Department of Finance has attributed the rising prices of essential goods to the spike in input costs, not just fuel prices.
Producers of essential goods are finding it hard to further lower prices due to suring input costs.
For perspective, producers said, fuel prices constitute 2-4% of the prices of essential items. Therefore, the recent fuel price cuts are not enough to influence the prices of essential goods and food.
Given such a situation, the HCMC Department of Finance has clarified the issue through a report on the price structure listing of businesses to the HCMC People’s Committee.
In the rice sector, enterprises proposed sticking to the registered prices as the production cost is still high and the rice supply has dwindled since the end of the autumn spring crop.
In the noodles sector, the price structure was 80% impacted by ingredient costs, not fuel prices which make up only 3% of the price structure.
While ingredient prices have soared a further 15-28%, businesses have not increased prices in accordance with the proposal of the Finance Department.
Likewise, fuel prices only account for 2% of the price structure in the avian egg sector. The increasing egg prices are the result of high feed prices, constituting 77% of the prices.
As such, many egg suppliers could not bear the stabilized prices and closed shop temporarily, leading to an egg undersupply on the market.
In the poultry sector, fuel prices only make up 0.05-4% of the price structure, while the main section of chicken and ducks accounts for 80% of the price structure.
Pork prices stand at VND66,000 per kilogram, up 10% over July 18. They will join hands with distribution systems to execute promotions to stimulate consumption.
The Finance Department affirmed that the prices of essential items in the Price Stabilization Program could not be lowered. Moreover, lowering input cost needs time and effort from the relevant agencies and ministries.
