Government fails to control price hike

The government has completely failed to control the price hike which has jumped by 0.3 per cent to shoot up to 14.4 per cent in the sixth month of the current fiscal year 2008-09. Till last month, the price hike stood at 14.1 per cent. Inflation is at double the target projected in the budget for the current fiscal year. The budget had projected to bring it down to seven per cent.
Though Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has decreased the petroleum products' prices four times since October, the price hike has not been controlled as the transportation cost has not gone down.
"Inflation in the six month of the current fiscal year has recorded an alarming 14.4 per cent against 5.8 per cent in the same period during the last fiscal year," said a Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) report.
According to the central bank, the prices of goods items went up by 18.3 per cent while the price of non-food items remained at 10.3 per cent during the period. The hike in prices of food and non-food items were 7.3 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively.
The government should take calibrated measures to control prices, if it wants to give relief to the people and maintain its target.
Although Nepal's inflation is linked to India, the neighbouring country's annual rate of inflation dropped to 5.07 per cent for the week that ended on January 24 from 5.64 per cent the week before. Inflation in Nepal has not come down.
The price hike or inflation is calculated on the basis of Consumer Price Index (CPI) that is based on Producer Price Index and Wholesale Price Index. Nepal Rastra Bank is responsible for analysing the various indices and public inflation, said Gopal Prasad Bhatta, deputy director of Nepal Rastra Bank while addressing an interaction on 'Data collection of price index in Nepal', here today. "There are 301 goods and services considered while calculating the price index," he said adding that the central bank collects such data on weekly, monthly, quarterly, half yearly and annual bases.
Currently, Consumer Price Index is at 200.2 which reveals that within the last 13 years prices of goods and servies have increased by 100 per cent.