Ramadan offer to fight soaring inflation

RAMADAN OFFER: Basic food items will be given out by Kuwaiti government during holy week. (Getty Images)

Kuwait will provide basic food items during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan to offset the impact of soaring prices, the Gulf Arab's crown prince said in remarks published on Tuesday.

"Government decisions regarding this matter will be issued soon," Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah told al-Rai newspaper.

The world's seventh-largest oil exporter, the only Gulf Arab state without a dollar peg, is fighting record inflation hitting 11 percent in April and May, driven by food and housing costs.

The government has raised salaries for citizens in the public service twice this year.

Sheikh Nawaf said he had asked the government to take all necessary decisions to stop price increases and some people exploiting a rise in global prices.

Commerce & Industry Minister Ahmad Baqer told daily al-Qabas the government would hold on Thursday a final discussion about recommendations by a committee assigned to prepare a strategy to fight inflation.

He said the committee had proposed more than 20 recommendations costing tens of millions dinars.

The proposals include a wider range of subsidies and supporting some food firms in sectors such as livestock and flour mills to reduce prices for consumers, state news agency KUNA said late on Monday, citing a cabinet statement.

The head of the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies, Mohammad al-Ansari, told al-Seyassah newspaper the organisation was studying importing seven basic commodities to help lower prices for consumers.

He added the union was studying setting up a body to collect imports after the government allowed the cooperative supermarkets, where citizens can buy subsidised food, to import directly from the source without wholesalers.

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