The United Arab Emirates warned suppliers against raising prices of goods and services in an "unjustified" manner to take advantage of a 70% increase in federal government employee wages next year.
The UAE, where inflation hit a 19-year high of 9.3% last year, will raise wages of state civil and military employees by 70% from January 1, the government said last week. President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced yesterday all employees of the UAE armed forces and Abu Dhabi Police would also receive a 70% raise in their basic salaries.
The Ministry of Economy warned suppliers and traders from "exploiting" the higher wage scheme and raising the price of goods and services, in an advertisement in Gulf News yesterday.
"The Ministry of Economy and local departments shall monitor the markets and prices of goods and services and impose maximum penalties on all violators" of a consumer protection law, it said.
The government set up a hotline for consumer complaints about unjustified price rises, it said.
Among Gulf states, the UAE has been hardest hit by the dollar's slide to a record low against the euro, a 26-year trough against the sterling and a two-year low versus the yen this month.
Businesses are complaining about rising costs and migrant construction workers rioted in Dubai this month to demand a pay rise to compensate for savings lost due to the dollar's slide. An online poll by newspaper Khaleej Times revealed yesterday UAE residents think the private sector should hike salaries by at least 30% to keep pace with the increasing cost of living in the country.
UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi said this month he was under growing social and economic pressure to drop the dirham's peg to the tumbling US dollar and adopt a basket of currencies.
The economy ministry said in a report last week that exchange-rate reform would be one of the ways of containing inflation driven partly by the dollar's slide making some imports more expensive.
"The UAE government is serious about containing inflation," the ministry said in the report. Source
The UAE, where inflation hit a 19-year high of 9.3% last year, will raise wages of state civil and military employees by 70% from January 1, the government said last week. President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced yesterday all employees of the UAE armed forces and Abu Dhabi Police would also receive a 70% raise in their basic salaries.
The Ministry of Economy warned suppliers and traders from "exploiting" the higher wage scheme and raising the price of goods and services, in an advertisement in Gulf News yesterday.
"The Ministry of Economy and local departments shall monitor the markets and prices of goods and services and impose maximum penalties on all violators" of a consumer protection law, it said.
The government set up a hotline for consumer complaints about unjustified price rises, it said.
Among Gulf states, the UAE has been hardest hit by the dollar's slide to a record low against the euro, a 26-year trough against the sterling and a two-year low versus the yen this month.
Businesses are complaining about rising costs and migrant construction workers rioted in Dubai this month to demand a pay rise to compensate for savings lost due to the dollar's slide. An online poll by newspaper Khaleej Times revealed yesterday UAE residents think the private sector should hike salaries by at least 30% to keep pace with the increasing cost of living in the country.
UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi said this month he was under growing social and economic pressure to drop the dirham's peg to the tumbling US dollar and adopt a basket of currencies.
The economy ministry said in a report last week that exchange-rate reform would be one of the ways of containing inflation driven partly by the dollar's slide making some imports more expensive.
"The UAE government is serious about containing inflation," the ministry said in the report. Source
No comments:
Post a Comment