In a letter addressed to His Highness the Prime Minister, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, the Chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Muhammad Al-Sager, warned of the record rise in prices of goods and services, foremost of which are the prices of minerals and building materials, Al-Rai daily reported.
The chairman warned that due to continuous price rises many suppliers and contractors may be unable to fulfill their contracts with the ministries and state institutions.
In the letter addressed to the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Abdullah Al-Salman, Al-Saqer warned that the consequences of this deficit and the imposition of sanctions on them.
Al-Sager demanded that the price hike file be presented to the Council of Ministers to form a specialized committee, comprising representatives from Commerce, the Ministry of Electricity and Water, the Ministry of Public Works, and the Public Authority for Housing Welfare, as well as representatives of the Chamber and those nominated by the Council of Ministers as representatives of companies and institutions that have contracts.
The committee report should cover all its financial, economic, and legal aspects, and then submits its report to the Council of Ministers within 10 working days of its formation.
For their part, the commerce officials show their understanding of the Chamber’s warnings and even expect to be exposed to a new wave of price increases at higher rates than before, which requires the liberalization of prices similar to the neighboring countries.
The record rise in prices is due to:
1 – Production stopped or slowed down sharply as a result of Corona, which paralyzed the whole world.
2 – Demand rose rapidly after the recovery of the major global economies, especially China, which is the largest consumer of metals in the world.
3 – In addition to that, for copper, there is a significant increase in the use of renewable energy and the electric car industry.