00:00In Honduras, a carton of eggs now costs twice as much as it did in January of this year.
00:06The basic food basket has seen an average of price increase of over 40%,
00:11affecting most households across the country.
00:14Gerardo Torres-Zalaya reports from Tegucigalpa.
00:21In the markets of Honduras, major cities, people face the daily difficult reality
00:26of having to accept that they cannot afford all their essential goods.
00:30Each day, they are able to buy less due to high costs,
00:34and for the same reason, vendors are able to sell less.
00:37The basic food basket is 40% more expensive than it was at the beginning of the year.
00:43They set their selling prices based on what they pay to buy the goods,
00:46and the truth is that the prices of many items have gone up,
00:49pineapples for instance, are extremely expensive.
00:52I understand them.
00:54I have a business myself.
00:55If they have to pay a high price to stop their goods, they have no other choice.
01:00It's not as if they actually want to charge more.
01:04These days, we just work with whatever is available.
01:07Vegetables, for instance, like potatoes, are very expensive,
01:09so we're just getting by as best we can.
01:12Sales have dropped quite a bit,
01:14and things tend to depend on when people get paid.
01:18Since today is the end of the month,
01:19we're hoping for better sales today and tomorrow.
01:23The main impact this week was a 30 lempida increase in the price of a carton of eggs,
01:29bringing the cost to 140 lempidas, about $7,
01:33which is double what they cost in January of this year.
01:37Currently, there is a global situation involving a change in the prices of fuels,
01:42which are used for everything from generating energy and transporting goods
01:46to irrigating farmland.
01:49As fuel prices rise, the cost of inputs also increases.
01:54For instance, this week, the price of animal feed concentrate went up,
02:00which led suppliers and egg producers to raise their prices.
02:05Honduras has an inflation rate of nearly 7%,
02:08that is the double of the regional average,
02:11and traditional local markets have long served as an alternative for the poorest families.
02:16Yet, even there, the cost of a full basic basket of goods exceeds $700,
02:21a price that is out of reach for a population in which 60% earn less than $500 a month.
02:28This is a severe blow to families,
02:31as the cost of a basic basket of goods has become unaffordable.
02:36The government has failed to bring inflation under control,
02:39and it continues to rise.
02:41It is true that part of this inflation
02:44stems from the rising price of petroleum-based products on the international market.
02:49It is also true that the government has not done enough
02:53in terms of subsidies to mitigate the impact,
02:57particularly regarding the basic basket of goods,
02:59which most directly affects the Honduran people.
03:03This year, Honduras has once again become the poorest country in the region,
03:07and due to the disparity between income and cost,
03:10the trend toward increasing impoverishment is only likely to worsen.
03:14From Tegucigalpa, Honduras, for Tele-Surin English, Gerardo Torres-Elaya.
03:19For Tele-Surin English,
03:19of the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S.
03:19and the U.S.
