Dear Editor,

Dr Prem Misir’s letter of May 28 in the Stabroek News attempts to take on the incomplete and continuing analysis of Professor Clive Thomas on the rising prices and the relief package announced by the government. The good doctor did not wait until Professor Thomas had concluded his analysis to rebut, but jumped in midway to criticize. However, I am responding to his premature response to Professor Thomas, who will no doubt deal with Dr Misir’s contentions in his continuing column on Sunday.

Unless I am mistaken, Dr Misir is categorically saying Guyana has no food crisis and has had no hand in the spiralling global food and fuel prices. I do not need to tell Dr Misir that one does not have to have a shortage of food to suffer from the effects of such a global crisis. It may be true that Guyana has had no hand in the rising global food and fuel prices. However, I am not sure that Guyana’s erratic supply of rice to Jamaica and other markets may not have contributed to uncertainty in supplies or increases in the price of this commodity in those markets. But on the domestic front, the government cannot lay claim to not having had a hand in the rising food prices.  From the moment VAT was imposed in January 1, 2007, food prices in Guyana began climbing. Imported inflation and price increases would have only added to this……