Prices of imported basic products are still stable or rising in the Central African Republic, despite the gradual resumption of traffic on the corridor connecting Douala to Bangui. This is the case, for example, with the cement price, which has risen by more than 50% since the crisis began in December.
“Here’s the site, everything remained so … We can not move on,” Martial shows. He invested all his savings in this project. He wanted to build a house with six bedrooms and two living rooms. It should already be finished but is still in its infancy. Since the beginning of the year, there has been no kind of pickaxe here since the sharp rise in cement prices.
“When the estimate was made, it was based on 8,300 CFA francs per bag of cement. Today we are at 13,500. So either you continue and you do two thirds of the work and you have to find the money to pay the last third. Or you stop and you wait for the price to return to normal. “
All around are piles of sand and rubble waiting to be used. And in the adjacent plot is the same spectacle of abandonment: “My neighbor is there. You can also watch, he has also stopped. Everyone is stuck. “
All including the walls. Vivien Malepayo handles about fifteen workers. Everyone is a day laborer. Their three seats are quiet and they are no longer paid. “If there is no cement, we cannot work. Children do not even get enough food, he says. We can not pay for their training. ”
At the Central African Statistics Institute (ICASEES), which controls the development of prices from one week to the next, we are surprised that cement prices are still at the highest levels while traffic has gradually resumed in the corridor connecting Douala to Bangui. Ali Blaise-Bienvenu, Director General of the Institute does not understand why traders do not lower their prices:
“Previously, we could understand that the Bangui Douala corridor was blocked or disturbed by the events, but in recent weeks, traffic has begun to flow and there is no reason for traders to continue to speculate in the price of a bag of cement. . “
The Director General of ICASEES calls on the authorities and economic operators to come together to find a common way out of this price increase.
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