Ethiopia Caps Food Prices to Combat Inflation, ENA Reports

Source Bloomberng By William Davison - Jan 7, 2011 6:38 AM PT 

Ethiopia capped the prices of commodities including rice, sugar and imported palm oil to combat rising inflation, the Ethiopian News Agency said.
The controls are aimed at addressing the “prevailing unhealthy market competition,” the government-owned news agency cited Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as saying.
Food prices rose 5.8 percent in November from a year earlier, while the overall inflation rate dropped to 10.2 percent from 10.6 percent in October, according to the Central Statistical Agency.
World food prices rose to a record in December on higher sugar and meat costs, the United Nations said, exceeding levels reached in 2008 that sparked deadly riots from Haiti to Egypt.
To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.