Consumer food price reporting in recent days indicates Teff,
beef and poultry prices continued to climb during the Easter holidays on both
sides of the Eritrean-Ethiopian border.
Reporting by VOA's Girmay in Mekele for the Tigrigna service
indicate that the price increase on some items has slowed, despite recent announcements
by the Ethiopian government that prices in Ethiopia dropped as much as 50
percent in some parts of the nation.
In Eritrea, the service's stringer in Asmara, Senait,
reported that the rise in prices has slowed for most food items except beef,
which is scarce, some believe, due to beef exports to Sudan.
Prices of cereals and grains in the other regions have held
or dropped, according to the VOA interviews with consumers and merchants. Tigray government spokesman Rugbe Kidane told
Girmay that "recent action by the government to stabilize the market is showing
results." Teff merchant Mohammed Nasir
said the slowdown can be attributed to new controls the government has placed
on hard currency available to exporters.
However, some merchants and consumers say the government is starved for
currency has started exporting sugar, resulting domestic price increases.
Last week, the Amharic service reported that there were some
price drops in all but the price of Teff, but the reports from region to region
were not consistent.