Government To Increase Wages To Compensate For Rising Prices

TIRANA, May 3, 2008. Prime Minister
Berisha said the Albanian government is
going to take active measures to meet rising
food prices. Berisha said the government is
going to compensate the needy, help farmers
to increase domestic production, and
speed up the construction of new roads. “The
government is determined to compensate for
price increases and it shall do it. But, we do
not accept to suffocate domestic production
through other methods. We are going to compensate,
one by one, pensioners, state employees,
and persons who receive social
help, but we cannot intervene and take measures
that damage domestic production”,
Berisha said.
The Minister of Finance, Ridvan Bode,
said the government is going to allocate
Euro 150 million in order to compensate
for the increase in the food prices. Bode
declared, on the TV show “Top story”, that
the Albanian government is planning to increase
wages to state employees. The
money is going to be allocated as part of
the revisited state budget due to be pre-
sented to the Albanian parliament next
month. Bode further said the government
is going to proceed very carefully in order
not to increase inflation.