http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/3830b48afcf2f337f597af15ddfb4523.htmAFGHANISTAN: Bread price hike affects millions
A sharp rise in the price of bread over the past three months is affecting the lives of millions of impoverished Afghans.
Unleavened bread is a staple of the Afghan diet, with the average person consuming at least two oval-shaped flatbreads per day.
"The price is too high. There are nine people in my family," Sardar Jan, a 40-year-old carpenter, told IRIN in Kabul.
"I need 15 loaves a day
. How can we afford this?" asked Ghulum Dawood, 56, another Kabul resident.
And while business at one of the busier bakeries along Kabul's Kolola Pushta Street remained brisk, selling about 2,500 loaves daily, even the proprietor had noticed a difference: "Business is good, but I know some people are having trouble," Baryalai Ghafory said.
"I receive four 'naans' free of charge from the baker a day," 65-year-old Amina, one of 300,000 widows in Kabul said. "Thank God for their generosity."
A large number of Kabul residents have resorted to buying flour and baking bread at home to cut down on costs.
Living on one dollar a day now more difficult
Since November 2007, the price of bread in Afghanistan has risen from 11 US cents to 21 US cents, an increase of over 90 percent. Though more or less in line with global wheat price increases in the same period, that is a significant jump for Afghanistan where over half the country's 25 million inhabitants survive on less than $1 a day, according to Afghanistan's National Human Development Report for 2007.
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I hate the neo cons