Barbadians are pretty reasonable people, who will generally listen to both sides of a contentious issue and provide a fairly balanced response.Faced with rising inflation that has caused the price of food and consumer items to escalate by about 10 per cent over the past year, Barbadians have remained relatively calm about the situation, accepting the argument that much of the inflation is imported and beyond the control of our local retailers.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has supported the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) in both its incarnations and has warned Barbadians and people around the world that rising prices will continue to be a feature of our existence.According to the World Economic Forum, the IMF “predicts global inflation to cool to 6.6 per cent in 2023 and 4.3 per cent in 2024, which is still above pre-pandemic levels of about 3.5 per cent, but significantly lower than the 8.8 per cent observed in 2022”.Listening to our radio call-in programmes reveals just how fearful Barbadians are about food prices in particular. They are becoming more vocal about their concerns and are focusing their ire on supermarket operators.
