Competition Authority Miss The Point

The Competition Authority has warned IBEC and in particular its food and drink sub group for saying that there was likely to be a rise in price due to increased costs faced by business. The Competition body appears to be saying that IBEC is attempting to lead prices.

The purpose of the IBEC statement and statements which have been made by a number of other groups such as Chambers and ISME, is that increased costs faced by business, many of which have been levied by government agencies, make our prices higher and our economy uncompetitive. Food price inflation has for a number of years been below the real inflation rate.

If the Competition Authority wants to see a competitive market it would do well to look at the Governments role.