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VI facing cost-of-living crisis over inflation- Shaina M. Smith-Archer
Mrs Smith-Archer was speaking on JTV’s the Big Story with host Cathy O. Richards on August 16, 2022.
Cost of Living Crisis
“The biggest thing right now, whether we want to call it this or not, we have a cost-of-living crisis, and the cost of doing business is linked to the cost of living so one of the biggest struggles again is for business to try to maintain normal prices."
Mrs Smith-Arched added; however, that as a result of global increases in prices and inflation rates as much as 12% outside of the VI, those prices have started to trickle into the VI economy.
“When we go to the grocery store, we have to close our eyes at check out because of the sticker shock, so it isn’t something where persons are just trying to profit,” she added.
The BVICCHA Chairman noted, “A lot of it is in reaction to what is happening in the global market that is going to translate back to here,” she said while adding that local businesses are looking for alternate suppliers to get the best prices for local consumers.
Public/Private address to issue
Mrs Smith-Archer, touching on inflation mitigating measures, said the Government can step in a negotiate with the private sector stores to make essentials more accessible to families who need them the most.
She said in the case of the VI, the government can negotiate for concessions in sales tax, import taxes or energy.
Pointing to a similar initiative in Barbados, Mrs Smith-Archer said the Government can negotiate with the major supermarkets for the provision of essentials at a lower cost.
She also called for more to be done as it relates to the reduction of the cost of electricity, “If the price of electricity is being driven by the price of oil, then we need to look for fuel from other sources”, she added.
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21 Responses to “VI facing cost-of-living crisis over inflation- Shaina M. Smith-Archer”
A crisis is when your country(say Ukraine) is invaded by a neighbor country(say Russia) for no valid reason.
What is obvious is your lack of knowledge....do some research from talking sh** about "no valid reason"...damn dummy.
After all the lies and propaganda from mainstream media with covid you still believe what these people say?! You must be one of the useless people that the WEF talks about that the pandemic was designed to get rid of...did you take the jab? Obviously you did! How you feeling?
Let's think about wind, solar & tidal power a bit more - all should be relatively easy here in the BVI!!!!
The reality is that there needs to be an investigations into the stores in BVI. The R**** one has a monopoly in importing most of the products in the BVI and so they dictates prices a super profit levels. For example fruits some times you go into the R**** one and the fruits marked up at hundreds of percentage are rotting then they try to put the spoiled fruits on sale at cost and eventually have to pay labour cost and transportation cost to take it to the dump instead of selling at a reasonable price initially with resultant larger sale volume and minimal spoilage.
Whatever the cost VI People will pay the bill
Supermarket does have a few cents less and call it sale but NHI telling you infront your face they not paying for any testing that cannot be done locally. Local doctor recommended the test to further diagnosis someone sicknesses but NHI not covering the cost. Well then the government need to bring in ppl and equipment at the hospital to do such testing
Some options include:
a. Temporary reduction on import duty,
b. Conservation of utility usage, ie, electricity, water, etc,
c. Substitution of products,
d. Merchants voluntarily reducing profits on basics, etc,
e. Government can roll out a Universal Basic Income ( UBI) initiative for the poor. Generally, UBI pays a periodic stipend (weekly, monthly, yearly) to residents,
f. Car pooling, park and ride, public transportation
1. a, b, and c are readily doable
2. d, e, and f heavier