THE Opposition Leader Mathew Cooper Wale has highlighted that the high cost of living in the country is a serious issue affecting people and it warrants the national government to re-strategize its fiscal policy to address.
He was contributing to the debate on the 2024 Supplementary Appropriation Bill in Parliament on Wednesday.
He said most people in the country cannot afford to save money because of the high cost of living.
The Opposition Leader said the recent contribution by the Public Accounts Committee Chairman Gordon Darcy Lilo on the core inflation and headline inflation was an appropriate consideration on this subject.
He said the inflation figures that the Minister of Finance and Treasury, Manasseh Sogavare read out on Monday was really low compared to what the people are experiencing.
Wale said people are really struggling under the weight of a really high cost of living and it is the role of the Fiscal Policy to address this issue.
“Cost of living is where you meet the 99 percent of the population, never mind the 1 percent – they are the ones who are not affected by this issue. The 99 percent are the ones that inflation really hits and if the Fiscal Policy doesn’t address this, then I think we are being neglectful not only to the local people of their basic needs but also in terms of the Fiscal Policy generally. This is an issue that the government should be thinking about,” Wale elaborated.
The Opposition Leader said the economic growth that was announced by the Minister for Finance and Treasury on Monday does not even reflect what the people are experiencing.
He said this is an important consideration not only for the Fiscal Policy, which is under the purview of the government, but also as a matter of monetary policy, which the Central Bank is responsible for and that it must consider seriously.
“This divergence, this inconsistency between the economy in this report and the economy that the Central Bank normally reports with the economy that the people experience every day is diverging. It is so different.”
Wale said the everyday experience of people is the economy that should be considered.
“If we’re only talking about the economy that the Central Bank and the Minister of Finance and Treasury report, then we run the risk of not lifting the burden off our people,” he added.
He said this issue of high inflation will not be addressed by the Rural Constituency Development Fund (RCDF) but by the fixing of the structure of the fiscal policy and the structure of the budget itself and in line with the desired monetary policy which the Central Bank must pursue.
He said the 99 percent of the population who are hit by this high cost of living and are down with poverty are like Lazarus in the Bible (Luke Chapter 16 verses 19) – they are poor and sick and are waiting on the door of the rich man for any crumb of food that falls off his table.
“We run the risk. Perhaps, we are already in this situation where 99 percent of the population are waiting for crumbs to fall off the table and that is an unnecessary risk to take, that is an avoidable preventable situation.
“We cannot say that people are just lazy to work. No, our economy is not creating the jobs or the opportunities they need and there is no reason why this economy is not creating these jobs and opportunities. We have enough resources. We have enough population to be creating those jobs and those opportunities but we’re not creating them.”
With the foregoing, the Opposition Leader urged the government to find some radical economists that have history in helping economies to rise from the ashes or this cycle of poverty that Solomon Islands seems to be stuck in.
By IAN LADDS OSO
Solomon Star, Honiara
