Yangon's residents in a financial crunch for soaring prices

Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Mysteriously soaring prices and a monetary devaluation have left  most of Yangon's residents in a financial crunch. Diesel prices have soared by 50 per cent to about 900 kyat per litre, forcing a corresponding increase in bus fares. "We have to ask for a little more than before for the ride. We sympathise with the passengers, But we have no choice because the diesel and petrol prices keep rising," taxi driver Thein Zaw said. A man selling medicine said prices would keep rising for imported goods as long as the kyat kept on weakening.

"We estimate that medicine prices have gone up about 30 per cent on average, compared with August," he said. Even a cup of tea costs 20 per cent more

Prices for almost everything continue to rise even as the kyat has plummeted. The local currency traded on the black market last week at 1,360 to one US dollar, having lost half its value since January. Khin Swe Oo, 23-year-old greengrocer in Myanmar's capital, said: "Selling fruits and vegetables as a greengrocer provides no long-term security for my life. But I have to do it to support my family. What I earn here lets me give 50,000 kyats per month to my family".

High world oil prices have helped power the price increases, but because the secretive government provides little economic data, politicians and economists are still trying to understand why prices have gone up so quickly. The country's economy has been reeling under decades of mismanagement by the military. European Union and US sanctions that have been tightened since the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003 are also biting.

One of the few items that have held relatively steady is rice. The Atmahta rice used by most people has increased 7 per cent.

Myanmar's military rulers, keenly aware that the last dictatorship fell because of protests sparked by soaring rice prices, has struggled to keep prices down by cutting back on exports to ensure domestic supply.

But the head of the Myanmar Rice and Paddy Traders Association told the Myanmar Times newspaper last month that prices were about 50 per cent lower than prices on the international market, and that growers might cut back production because they were operating at a loss.  

• MYANMAR
• economic
• crisis
• price
• soaring
• monetary
• devaluation
• kyat
• military
• regime