Aiyo, semua expensive now...

Just heard that 10 Nestle products will see a rise of 5.5% to 14% beginning Nov 1.

Items include popular beverages like Milo and Nescafe, growing up milk Nespray and Neslac, full cream milk Everyday and cereals are going to cost more.

This means most households would have to pay extra to get their daily dose of their usual breakfast. A few months ago, Nestle also increased the price of its Maggi instant noddles.

(The timing of Nestle’s announcement that the hike will only take effect after Hari Raya, but before Deepavali, only shows the company’s policy of disregarding the Indian community)

This bad news from Nestle follows an AFP story today that "the cost of basic items such as chicken, eggs, flour and condensed milk have all risen by up to 50 percent thanks to a price creep which began last year and has spiked in recent weeks".

The wire agency quoted a local woman as saying that her grocery bill now stood at RM500 a month. It was just RM300 for the same goods before.

Government authorities are blaming a drop in supply and bad weather for the high prices.

And to make matters even worse, a Bloomberg report today said we "risk running short of grain because the nation's millers can't afford record wheat prices".

Malaysian millers are now asking the government to rise the price of wheat-based products as "they are losing money on every bag of flour sold because of state-imposed price controls".

The effect of this is that ordinary things such as roti canai, noodles and bread will see a price hike soon.

Civil servant were crowing over their salary increment a few months ago. Since then prices of everything have been on the rise gradually.

We have also heard that taxi and bus operators too want to increase their fares. Come January, the North-South Highway will be asking for a toll revision as allowed under its concessionary agreement.

Electricity tariff has gone up. Water too has followed the same pattern. Fuel and cooking oil, need not say.

Everything is more expensive today. Our buying power has simply deteriorated tremendously.

But the government says everything is good and dandy. We (read: the government) can afford to spend billions to send a tourist to space. We can afford to pump in money to develop economic regions. We can afford to continue with the bail-outs and soft loans.

What we have failed to do is to make sure that the rakyat can openly say they are leading a good, quality life.

AFP report: Food price hikes weigh on Malaysian Muslims this Ramadan
Bloomberg article: Malaysia Risks Flour Deficit After Record Wheat Price