At the same time, inflation keeps rising: the Philippines announced that its inflation at the consumer level had doubled in the last five months, showing a 6.4 percent increase in March over the same month a year ago. And weekly inflation at the wholesale level has accelerated in India, reaching an annual rate of 7 percent in the week ended March 22, up from 3.1 percent as recently as last October.
The story notes that in Vietnam, it’s so bad the central bank has had to order businesses to take a certain amount of dollars.
When Vietnam won’t take dollars, you know it’s in the crapper. Plus, because many Southeast Asian countries, again, led by China but not just it, are still trying to peg their currencies to the dollar, their inflation is getting even worse, beyond rising costs in raw materials and food.
Vietnam is among countries trying price controls, but that’s not likely to last. When businesses find enough ways around that, either through loopholes or the old-fashioned developing world answer of bribing government officials, inflation will go even higher.
Wally-World isn’t mentioned by name, but another company is – Pier 1. A Vietnamese supplier is listed as jacking prices on its product 10 percent while noting that doesn’t cover all the 30 percent increase in production costs.
Hey, America, the gravy train is over.
Hey, rich America and government leaders, the bread and circuses is getting pricey.
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