Business

Cost of freight is important: Klein

August 15, 2022 12:30 pm

Freight costs are a critical component for Fiji as they directly impact the cost of imported products and also dictate the inflation rate.

Bred Bank Fiji Board Director, Olivier Klein says this is beginning to slowly come down.

Freight costs have been at their highest in recent times since the start of the COVID pandemic and subsequently the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

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Klein says if nothing bad happens, the cost of freight will further decrease.

“So if the decrease is more and more visible, that will ease a lot of the inflation issues in Fiji. That’s what I think. It’s possible that will be a lesser problem. Because of the international incertitude, we must be very modest in our forecast.”

Klein says he met with several chief executives who indicated that they had reduced their margin rates because they could not transfer the increase in their costs to their prices.

He adds they are also trying to assist the micro, small and medium enterprises.