Muharram ghost tour

Ahirudin Attan said, "Not a good start for Muharram, not at all".

Who could deny that? Not only another girl has gone missing while the police are still at loss for clues about Nurin's abductor and murderer, but we are also haunted by list of other "ghosts".

"Oil for food" fake shortage, crime rate spiking up (Umno politicians included?), endless scandals in the police force (polis raja di Malaysia or Polis Diraja Malaysia?) and now sundry shops finding it hard to obtain flour. The list will go on and on.

As usual, a great length of all the factors listed by a few smart Alexs to justify the shortage. No one touches about the blatant monopoly by all those stinking rajas - raja gula, raja tepung, raja AP, all those criminals.

Wake up, economists!

Related:
Musa, mobilise your force....or get the fuck out of our face (Cik Gu Bernard)
Seen This Man? (Nuraina A Samad)
Nurin Alert For Nini.. (Nuraina A Samad)
Shahrizat: Everyone must help to find Sharlinie (The Star)

“We cannot waste any time, we must find this child. Not only to save her life, but also to send a clear message to the perpetrators – don’t think that in this country, you can do whatever crime or violent act you like”.

News about Sharlinie
Bloggers on Sharlinie
Don't use crime rate as poll gimmick (Malaysiakini)
Internal conflicts drive offenders to repeat crime, says psychologist (Bernama)
Lets Trade (Nazir Khan)

Please people of neighbouring countries, return our cooking oil, our, flour, our diesel and our young girls and take our leaders in return. They are the best in the world, please take them.

Pampered lives and price hikes (The Star)

Our politicians have preferred to downplay the escalating cost of living while trying to convince the people on the need to reduce subsidies. But the fact is, you cannot do both at the same time.

Sooner or later, we have to bite the bullet and face the reality of sharing the burden of subsidies. Elections or not, the Government will have to deal with the impact of oil price increases.

At the same time, the Government needs to work harder to stop wastage in projects that bring little benefit to Malaysians. Pride is one thing but if it serves little besides inflating our egos, then we should just save our money.

We also need to contain our cost of production and be serious in fighting corruption and mismanagement.

The campaign to convince Malaysians to be prudent and thrifty can only work if the Government also ends some of these abuses.

Avoiding wastage, price hikes touched on at delegates' briefing

Bernama (5/11/2007): Avoiding wastage, hikes in the prices of essential goods and fuel and efforts to make the economy more resilient were among the issues touched on by Umno President Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the presidential briefing for delegates prior to this year's Umno general assembly.

Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said Abdullah also asked party members to exercise restraint when debating sensitive issues as it could affect racial harmony.

Asked whether Abdullah asked members against raising any sensitive issues, Radzi said the president did not stop them from doing so but merely asked them to be more careful when deliberating on issues which could be deemed sensitive by other races.

Radzi was asked to comment on the closed-door presidential briefing for Umno delegates attending the party's general assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre here beginning today.

A Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said Abdullah reminded the delegates on the need for the people to brace themselves against the pressures of price hikes.

Mohamad, who is also Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar, said Abdullah stated that at times the government had to make unpopular decisions.

The Prime Minister said that the government had given a lot of subsidies to the people to ease their burden, he said.

"So the Prime Minister reminded the people to be wise in their spending," said Mohamad.

Umno Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the delegates were reminded to exercise caution when debating on religious and racial issues.

Umno Youth vice chief Khairy Jamaluddin said the briefing reminded the delegates on the need to preserve harmonious relations among the races.

"A lot of critical issues were raised by the president. The delegates wore a worried look when the challenges were laid before them," he said.

Umno information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhamad Taib said Abdullah told the delegates to strengthen the party and bolster its unity.

Related: ECER: Hasil belum ada, belanja pelancaran cipta jutawan - Husam

The era of cheap food is over

(The Star, 29/10/2007) In Malaysia, the rising cost of wheat flour and its related products such as bread and noodles is causing anxiety to consumers. It’s the same bad news all over the world, and higher food prices are likely to stay or even

THE rising cost of wheat flour and its possible inflationary spill over to bread, noodles, cakes, biscuits and chapatti has been making hot news in Malaysia.

It was reported in The Star last Thursday that the price of wheat flour per kilo rose from RM1.70 to RM2.00 on Sept 15 and to RM2.60 on Oct 16. The Government has urged makers of wheat-based food products to restrain from raising their prices excessively.

It is the same bad news the world over. And wheat is only one example. The prices of many other food items are also going up.

In the world market, wheat and milk prices have risen to all-time high levels. Rice is at a 10-year record level. Corn and soyabean prices are also higher than their averages a decade ago. The price of meat has shot up in many countries.

The era of cheap food seems to be over. With demand exceeding supply, there is also concern of impending shortages, as stocks in warehouses decline, and as some countries restrict the export of their food.

We are used to some food prices suddenly going up and then declining again. This is usually due to output being affected by drought or crop disease, and indeed the present drought in some wheat-producing countries is one reason for the recent increase in wheat prices.

But this time there are also other more structural and long-term factors that suggest that the high levels of food prices will remain or climb further.

The first is the rising demand for many types of food in developing countries, due to population growth, rising incomes, and changing tastes.

China is often cited as an example of this rising demand, but there are also many countries where demand is outstripping local supply, thus increasing the pressure on world markets.

The second is the rising cost of inputs that go into producing food. Oil is the prime example. Its price has been shooting up; last week it hit a record of US$92 a barrel and there are predictions of its reaching $100 in due course.

This hits food prices in at least two ways – by driving up the cost of inputs such as tractor fuel and fertiliser, and by increasing the cost of transporting the food across oceans.

The third is the boom in bio-fuels, which is causing land that could be growing food crops to be used for producing crops for fuel.

The increased demand for bio-fuels is causing basic changes to agricultural markets that may drive up the world prices of many farm products, according to a June report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the OECD (the developed countries’ think-tank).

Their Agricultural Outlook 2007-2016 said that temporary factors such as droughts in wheat-growing regions and low stocks largely explain the recent increases in farm commodity prices.

“But structural changes are underway which could well maintain relatively high nominal prices for many agricultural products over the coming decade,” said the report summary.

The most important change is “the growing use of cereals, sugar, oilseed and vegetable oils to produce fossil fuel substitutes, ethanol and bio-diesel.

“This is underpinning crop prices and, indirectly through higher animal feed costs, also the prices for livestock products.”

The shift of land use from food to fuel is ringing alarm bells. On Oct 26, the United Nations’ rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, told a press conference in New York that there should be a five-year moratorium on bio-fuels “as it is a crime against humanity to convert food crops to fuel.

“Bio-fuels are driving up food prices at a time when there are 854 million hungry people in the world.”

Another recent FAO report on (“Crop prospects and food situation”) said that international wheat prices have risen sharply since June, hitting record highs in September, due to tightening world supplies, low stock levels and sustained demand.

The combination of higher export prices and soaring freight rates is “pushing up domestic prices of bread and other basic food in importing developing countries, and causing social unrest in some areas.”

Overall, developing countries are estimated to spend a record US$52bil (RM173bil) in cereal imports in 2007. Other highlights of the FAO report:

> MAIZE prices are well above last year’s levels, despite bumper crops, due to strong demand from the bio-fuel industry;

> THE 2007 cereal harvest will only meet utilisation levels in 2008, meaning that stocks will not be replenished. Cereal stocks will remain at very low levels for the foreseeable future;

> WHEAT stocks are “worrying.” Sustained demand amid insufficient production increase this year may cause world inventories to fall by at least 14 million tonnes to 143 million tonnes, the lowest in 25 years; and

> THIRTY-SIX countries are currently facing food crises.

With food prices on the rise, and with food insecurity increasing as stocks tighten or fall, many countries are already planning to increase their own production of food.

Since the prices of food imports are now so high, it is economically more worthwhile, for both farmers and the nation, to start or increase the production of various types of food crops.

When prices go up, spirits come down

Inflation is becoming a thornier problem than volatile stock markets and rising oil prices

(Business Times Singapore, 22/1/2007)

CONSIDERING Wall Street's massive 2.64 per cent sell-off last Friday, Asian and European markets can count on a torrid week ahead.

Before the US's humongous sub-prime issues could be tackled, crude oil futures breaching US$90 a barrel - with talk of it soaring to over US$100 by year-end - had stoked inflationary and earnings fears, and worries of a general slowdown in the economy.

Despite local firms continuing to show better corporate earnings growth and little, if any, exposure to the US's sub-prime problems, the impact on the Malaysian market appears inevitable.

External volatility is beyond one's control. Where the stock market is concerned, any sharp tumbles would be unfortunate given that Malaysia was very late, years behind other markets in fact, getting onto the bull. Those who remember the days what the ringgit was worth often observe that in ringgit terms, the benchmark KL Composite Index (KLCI) is still nowhere near its peak of the early 1990s. If one considers the KLCI's 1994 high of 1,332 was achieved when the local unit was about RM2.50 to the US dollar, its present day level of 1,376 at RM3.36 to the US dollar isn't too much to shout about.

Nonetheless, compared to its moribund years after currency controls were imposed in 1998, there is much to be thankful for.

On the economic front, hefty expansionary budgets will likely result in the projected 5-6 per cent growth over the next two years, albeit slightly weaker if global growth slows.

The greater concern is inflation. Despite government assertions that inflation is a mere 2-plus per cent - many items in the basket of goods by which inflation is measured is price controlled - the average Joe Blow is far from convinced.

Many expenses such as tolled roads which are an essential feature of city life, particularly in the Klang Valley, are not included in the basket. Even attempts to curb the cost of items in the basket are beginning to backfire. In the past years, commodity prices have soared on the back of expanding global demand.

Malaysian builders have screamed about the shortage of steel bars and billets, fingering steel millers who, they claim, prefer to export them if builders do not pay above ceiling prices.

Because of the expansive drought in Australia, the price of wheat flour has also shot up by an enormous 80 per cent since April. If the government does not give flour millers a price increase, millers warn that there is little incentive to import the wheat, which is a main ingredient in bread, noodles and Indian rotis.

The price increase in innocuous items such as corrugated cartons has been surprising. In January, the Malaysian Corrugated Carton Manufacturers' Association (MCCMA) raised prices of corrugated carton and its related products by 15 per cent. Last month, it announced another 15 per cent hike, adding that paper costs had spiked, as had production costs, 'due to the
rise in prices of fuel (up 70 per cent), electricity (13 per cent), transportation (30 per cent) and labour cost (5 per cent)'. MCCMA has warned of another hike as paper prices are likely to spiral further in the next six months.

On a more 'essential' front, Malaysia's public transport operators have submitted proposals to the government for fee hikes of 100-600 per cent next year, saying that they can no longer bear the burden of higher operating costs. Toll increases are scheduled for a number of operators next year.

The government gave the country's one million-odd civil service a pay rise of between 7.5 and 42 per cent in July - the first since 1992 - but with inflationary forces so unrelenting, it will be interesting to see how Malaysia deals with a problem that, falling markets aside, is a thornier
problem and one that is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

Malaysia's inflation may remain high in Sept: Economists

(Business Times, 23/10/2007)

INFLATION will probably remain high in September as festivities placed price pressures on food necessities in Malaysia.

Economists polled by the Business Times are expecting inflation to average 1.96 per cent year-on-year.

The August consumer price index (CPI) rose to a six-month high of 1.9 per cent year-on-year on the back of a weaker ringgit and higher food and cigarette prices.

The Statistics Department will release the details of the CPI for September on Wednesday.


"Inflation readings have managed to stay at about 1.5 per cent for several months, thanks largely to the strong currency as well as the high base last year," remarked DBS Bank economist Irvin Seah.

The base effect (from last year's hike on pump prices for petrol) has finally come off but the price ceilings on some basic necessities have put the lid on price pressures during the Ramadan festive season.

Full year average inflation should remain relatively modest at 2.1 per cent, he added, within the comfort zone of the central bank.

"However, crude oil prices hit a new record high of US$85.80/bb (brent) on October 18 and that certainly raise the risk of the authority hiking pump prices in order to reduce the burden of its oil subsidies.

"If oil prices continue to remain high or edge even higher in the next four to six months, the chance is high that the government may once again hike pump prices as was done on February 28."

With inflationary risks on the upside, the central bank is most likely to keep the key benchmark rate at 3.50 per cent in the forthcoming meeting on October 30 while allowing the expansionary fiscal policy to keep growth on track.

Citi Asia-Pacific economics and market analysis director Dr Chua Hak Bin expects inflation to continue to climb further.

"Inflation will likely continue climbing, possibly rising more sharply next year on likely fuel subsidy cuts and transport fare hikes," he said, adding that average inflation could rise by some 0.5 to one per cent next year because of possible hikes in petrol pump and electricity prices.

"Toll and transport fares will also likely be raised next year.

"Toll rates may be raised by about 10 per cent on January 1 although the government is deciding whether to absorb part of the toll increase.

"The impact on the CPI is about 0.1-0.2 percentage points."

September is expected to see an increase, mostly attributed to higher prices of meat products during the festive season.

There was also possibly some shortage of food and pharmaceutical items arising from the alert over China food items although the stronger ringgit may have however helped to curb imported inflation.