The weakening euro is leading to a rather positive outcome for consumers in the UAE as the prices of European food and beverage imports are expected to climb down in the coming months, a United Arab Emirates newspaper has said.
The 16 per cent drop of the euro against the dollar over the last year and the 4.3 per cent drop over the last month means that many of the commodities on the food shelves should become cheaper in time to come," the English language daily Gulf News said in a commentary yesterday.
Supermarket chains in the UAE have said that they expect about a 10 per cent reduction in prices for consumers despite the fact that overhead costs would remain the same.
"This is as it should be because the benefits of any such economic activity in the market, especially when in favour of consumers, must deliver concrete results for the latter and not just remain advantageous to retailers and wholesalers," the paper noted.
Happily for consumers, it continued, a weakening currency leads to competitiveness in the market and offers a wider choice for price points, thus disadvantaging retailers who insist on maintaining high prices despite the savings they stand to make