The Palestine Government’s price control system is inadequate to check inflation, and its system of point rationing “does not exist outside the boundaries of the Jewish municipalities,” it is charged today in an article appearing in the London “Economist.”
The writer asserts that the government is appeasing the land owners and peasantry, “whose overcharging on agricultural products is chiefly responsible for the increase in the cost of living.” The article also criticizes the “cost-of-living allowances” which provide for an automatic wage increase as the price index rises. It declares that these wage increases intensify the inflationary pressure and also cause difficulties for Palestine producers by making it almost impossible for them to compete with overseas competitors whose cost of production is much lower.
With the approach of peace, the article concludes, this problem will assume increasing importance and, therefore, “the recovery of the purchasing power of the pound is vital to the future stability of Palestine’s economy.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
