The St. Kitts government on Tuesday gave consumers the assurance that the price of baked goods will not be increased until next year, even in the face of rapidly rising flour prices.

The Denzil Douglas adminis-tration, in its weekly post-Cabinet paper, noted that bakers in the twin-island federation had agreed to hold prices constant until the end of the first quarter of next year.

"About three weeks ago the government began negotiations with bakers on the increase of the price of flour and the increase of the price of baked goods.

"After three weeks of negotiations, government has reached a settlement with local bakers on the price of bread and other baked goods consumed by the local public," the Cabinet paper said, noting that bakers had requested an increase in the cost of products commensurate with the increase in the price of flour purchased from overseas.

Recently, consumers in neighbouring Antigua and Barbuda were hit by a 20 per cent hike in the price of bread and other baked products.

Government there said the decision to grant the increase was based a 13.3 per cent increase in the price of flour.

- CMC

TAKEN FROM THE FINANCIAL GLEANER, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2007