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Russian PM calls for stabilizing food price

Xinhua, January 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday urged government officials to take all necessary measures to prevent the rise of food prices.

"Lately, because of ruble's depreciation as well as a number of other factors, we have seen an unreasonable rise of the food price, " Medvedev said in a meeting with Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov.

Efforts should be made together with owners of grocery chains, farmers and intermediaries "to do everything possible to prevent unjustified rise in price," Medvedev said, adding the "speculative margin" triggered by various economic factors should be controlled.

The two also discussed the possibility of Fyodorov joining the work of Federal Antimonopoly Service as well as related federal and regional governmental departments to monitor food prices.

At the end of 2014, the Russian government had levied an additional 15-percent duty on wheat exports to prevent companies from exporting surplus grain and capitalizing on fluctuations of ruble's value, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Data released from Russia's statistic agency Rosstat at the end of 2014 showed that the inflation rate reached an estimated 11.4 percent in 2014, while food prices increased by 15.4 percent.

Russia's Central Bank has estimated that inflation in the country is likely to continue speeding up until the second half of 2015. Endite