.... and Higher Prices

The diesel problems and other problems in the country have also led to higher prices of all commodities. We, and most other missionaries and foreigners, have sufficient money that these increases do not prevent us from doing our normal activities. This is not true for the lower middle and lower income people here. I do not buy a lot of groceries since we grow most of our veggies and we have been given meat to last us a couple of months – lots of fish and a couple of chickens.

Just a few examples that I have noticed.
A 1 kilo bag of flour cost 3.5 bs. now is 5 bs.
Sugar was 12 bs a bag, now is 20 bs.
Peanuts have risen from 5 bs to 15 bs a kilo
Rice has risen from 3-4 bs a kilo to 6-8 bs.
And these are the basic things that everyone would buy.

For the things the locals would not buy:
Cement up from 45 bs to 60 bs a bag
Bricks up from 600 bs./1000 to 1200 bs/1000
computer paper up from 25 bs to 33 bs
cappuccino frio, up to 12 bs from 8 bs;
chicken dinner, 12 bs from 9 bs.
The cost themselves are not that great but the percentage increase is great. They say that at one ‘gringo’ restaurant in Santa Cruz, the prices have doubled.

In addition to that, the people are not getting the same value for their American dollars. They are paid for their soy and rice in dollars and feel that they are getting less when they change it to Bolivianos. They used to get 8 bs per dollar but are now getting somewhere between 7.5 and 7.6 per dollar. We had a shelf built for the bathroom and the carpenter, for the first time, wanted bolivianos rather than dollars. We think that the inflation rate is about 25-30% but there are no firm statistics.