Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Tuesday called on the country’s producers and retailers of food to lower prices to reduce poverty.
The Head of State said so while attending the 50th anniversary of the association of sugar cane producers, Asocaña.
Uribe argued that lower prices of agricultural products would help recover the purchasing power of Colombians that was damaged because of soaring food prices throughout 2008.
Uribe stressed “retailers could help now to confront this international conjuncture and the domestic economic problems if they help to quickly convey a reduction of prices of basic food products.”
Last year’s inflation in Colombia was more than six percent. Because the inflation was mostly due to increased food prices and not luxury products, it mostly affected Colombia’s poor.
Recent government figures showed that even though general poverty reduced, extreme poverty had gone up the past year.
