Tarutia explains rise in prices

By DALE LUMA
THE increase in the cost of store goods is because of Papua New Guinea’s heavy dependence on imports, National Superannuation Fund (nasfund) chief executive officer Ian Tarutia says.
Tarutia told The National that the rising prices of goods was because of a few factors and the main one being that the country could not get enough supplies from overseas.
He said it was a matter of supply and demand with demand high and supply was low.
“There is a supply chain, goods that are imported, when they are slow coming because of shipping and point of source and the whole rule of supply and demand,” he said.
“If supply is low and demand is high, then that forces prices up.
“One of the main reasons why prices of goods are going up is because we are not able to get enough supply from overseas.
“That would be the same for manufacturing.
“We are bringing in imports to use for things that we are manufacturing onshore.
“We still rely on imports from offshore and there will be delays.”
City Pharmacy Ltd founder Sir Mahesh Patel said with regards to imports, the major contributing factors were currency devaluation, increase in freight costs and cost of actual goods as there had been increases in costs globally.
“All locally sourced products would have the same issues as lots of raw materials are imported,” he said.