Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise ,CPPE, has urged the Federal Government to implement fiscal policy to control food inflation, boost production, and others in the agricultural sector.
Fiscal policy uses government spending and tax policies to influence macroeconomic conditions, including aggregate demand, employment, and inflation.
Food inflation rose to 40.66% with the country’s headline inflation rate hitting 33.95% in May 2024.
This figure is the highest historical record the National Bureau of Statistics ,NBS, has announced through its Consumer Price Index ,CPI, report.
Addressing the vast importance of fiscal policy on the agricultural sector, the Chief Executive Officer of CPPE Muda Yusuf in a statement seen by this newspaper said the policy is a requisite to the effects of economic reforms propelling growth in the sector.
“Fiscal policy measures have much better prospects of addressing supply-side challenges in the economy, if well targeted.
“Boosting production is very vital to fixing the current inflationary pressures, driven largely by supply-side challenges in the economy. Fiscal policy measures are potent tools for the realization of this objective.
“We recommend that these fiscal policy measures be replicated to boost production in other segments of the real sector.
“We need similar executive orders for agriculture, agrochemicals and Agro-allied industries to curb the surging food inflation; we need similar intervention in the energy sector, to promote energy security and incentivize private investments in the sector”.
He called for similar support for the iron and steel sector to aid the construction industry and reduce construction costs for housing and infrastructure.
