Majority not confident in govt’s ability to solve problem of high goods prices: Poll

A large majority of people are not confident the government would be able to solve the problem of high prices of consumer goods, according to the result of an opinion survey by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, or Suan Dusit Poll.

The poll was conducted online between Jan 24-27 on 1,383 people throughout the country to compile their opinions on the soaring prices of goods including pork, eggs and food, causing them to shoulder a higher cost of living.

Asked to mention goods of which prices they found to have been unusually high, with each respondent allowed to give more than one answer, 92.75% mentioned pork; 74,24% fast food on orders; 71.79% eggs; 57.07% vegetable oil; and 56.13% chicken meat.

Asked what they thought were causes of the problem, 65.02% blamed it on communicable diseases on animals; 64.22% cited hoarding and price manipulation; and, 63.13% profiteering by traders.

Asked what they did to cope with the problem of high goods prices, 77.20 resorted to spending control; 66.67% cutting down consumption of goods with high prices; and, 57.37% looking for substitutions with affordable prices.

A large majority, 82.69%, said they were not confident the government would be able to solve the problem – with 47.27% having little confidence and 35.42% having no confidence at all. On the other side, 15.27% said they were fairly confident in the government and 2.04% had much confidence in it.

Asked for how long they thought they would be able to withstand the problem, 34.93% less than three months; 28.53% less than six months; 18.56% less than one month; and, 17.98% more than six months.