I
5
Wednesday, March 27, 1974
He denied that internally generated inflation was at the root
of the present phenomenon of rising prices and said that "even the most
authoritarian measures to obliterate such internal inflation as does
exist would only have a modest impact on the rate at which consumer
prices are rising."
In assessing the situation, he said, attention must be mainly
focussed on foodstuffs since the increase in the prices of foodstuffs
accounted for 77 per cent of the total increase in the. General Consumer
Price Index.
But it was in import prices that the increases had been dramatic.
In the twelve months up to February this year, seasonally adjusted
food prices at the retail level increased by 28 per cent, while the increase
for the calendar year 1973 was about 24 per cent.
At the import level, however, the increase in 1973 was 32 per
cent. In the case of rice, the increase at import level was 120 per cent,
for whoat and flour it was over 50 per cent, for vegetables over 30 per
cent, and in the case of pond fish (and fish preparations) and meat and
meat preparations it was about 25 per cent.
"These increases are almost unbelievable, but truth is often
stranger than fiction," Mr. Haddon-Cave remarked.
/He noted