“Price control is against the principle of a free market system and has not ensured price stability in the economy according to the evidence, but rather leads to hoarding and shortage of goods and services in economies,” he told deputies.
The Trade minister noted that The Gambia maintains a free market economy policy and the liberal trading environment where prices of goods and services are determined by market forces.
However, he added the government is aware and conscious of their responsibility to ensure that consumers are not exploited through market failures including anti-competitive practices.
“Government ensures that essential food commodities are available adequately and accessible at reasonable prices,” he said. “To achieve this, we continue to monitor prices at stock level of essential commodities weekly, and engage players in the ecosystem to ensure sanity in the market.”
“Meeting the business community should not only aim at bringing the prices down. There are so many things we meet them for and we continue to do that regularly. There are several factors involved that lead to the increment of prices until those issues are addressed, prices can’t go down.”
“Government adopted the principal engagement, dialogue – the use of competition and consumer protection legislation to deal with anti-competitive practices in markets. These approaches have proven to be impactful which can be associated to the relatively low commodity price regimes in The Gambia compared to those in neighbouring countries.”
He acknowledged that they do not have the capacity to monitor the last mile of trade activities in the country.
