UNDENIABLY inflation is rearing its ugly head again. Food prices have gone up. If we may recollect, the situation now is about the same with 2008 when world oil prices surpassed US$100 per barrel and reaching its highest at about US$148 in July 2008, and this contributed much to inflation then. This is still fresh in our mind.
That unprecedented rise in oil price had led to rising energy costs and food prices. The latter was also due to the decline in rice production in many countries because of flooding. The cost of moving rice to various remote areas in the country rose, in particular to Sabah and Sarawak. There was a public outcry that we needed to invest more into food production, especially of rice.