Cost of living is out of control – PRO of the NDP

The New Democratic Party (NDP) has expressed concern about the cost of living situation in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The issue was raised by the party’s public relation’s officer (PRO), Lavern King when she spoke on the NDP’s New Times programme on Wednesday, August 14, 2024.

Expressing concern over the level of poverty, King said many persons in St Vincent and the Grenadines are living from month to month, and at the end of each month there are bills to be paid and mouths to be fed, but the “ends just not meeting.”

She claimed that there is a level of frustration among Vincentians even as other countries in the region seem to be doing better.

Speaking about the government’s ongoing distribution of food boxes post-Beryl, King commented that “nobody would want to suffer the indignity of going for a ration box, unless they really need it”.

“Nobody wants to just get up and beg, when they could do better,” the NDP PRO argued.

King also expressed the opinion that “there is a level of poverty that exists in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” hence the reason why people cannot make ends meet.

“The cost of living in this country is skyrocketing; it is out of control,” she charged, and there is little or nothing that is being done to help make the dollar reach further.

While the volcanic eruptions and COVID may have contributed to the economic hardship, King said she believes the economy was ailing long before these events.

Vice President of the party, Major St Clair Leacock who also was on the programme, supported King in her comments about the economy.

“There is a lot of poverty in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” Leacock said, and, “many people can no longer eat “three square meals”.

The NDP Vice President insisted that St Vincent and the Grenadines is poorer than Grenada, Saint Lucia, Dominica and the other Eastern Caribbean States.