UAE parliament to address rising inflation
25/8/2008 17:00
The parliament of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will work to draft a
comprehensive set of practical solutions to address the problem of rising
inflation in the country, local newspaper Khaleej Times reported today.
The
UAE Federal National Council (FNC), or the country's parliament, will hold a
special committee meeting tomorrow in the presence of financial experts and
government and private sector representatives to discuss evolving a unified
federal strategy to curb the escalating levels of inflation.
The findings of
the committee will then be discussed in a series of FNC sessions in November in
the presence of the Minister of Economy and other government
representatives.
The discussions will revolve around the topics of rising
fuel prices, decreasing value of the US dollar, rising rents, and the rising
prices of commodities and services, FNC member Khalid bin Zaid Al Falasi
said.
"It is very important to develop a sensory organ that will enable us to
anticipate future economic challenges, and address them before they occur. The
increase in fuel prices, for instance, could have been anticipated and addressed
much sooner," he said.
FNC will also urge the government to regulate the
prices of basic commodities and to subsidize these commodities.
Figures
released by the UAE Ministry of Economy in June showed that the country's
inflation soared to a 20-year record high of 11. 1 percent in 2007.
The
rising inflation in the UAE was attributed to steep increase in costs of rent
and related household items and food prices.
Xinhua
|
