JEDDAH: The price of food over the past eight years has preoccupied the minds of most low and middle income earners because consumer products have risen by between 85 and 100 percent. Added to this is that house rents have increased by 30 to 40 percent. All these developments are thought to have had a direct impact on the increase in inflation to 11 percent. Economists and observers have reached the conclusion that merchants are raising prices every year so that they can profit from salary increases given to government employees. Many civil servants and consumers would rather not get salary increases because all their extra money goes straight into the pockets of merchants. Many believe that the 15 percent salary increase ordered by King Abdullah will also meet the same fate. Many families cannot survive on the remaining one-third of their salaries until the end of the month, so they look for more loans. In fact, the rise in prices cannot be attributed to external factors as claimed by the Ministry of Commerce. They are purely internal factors, foremost of which is the greed of merchants and landlords.
