Reunion: Agree Price Decline After Violence

Communities, importers, local producers and retailers have signed on Tuesday an agreement to do so after four days of talks.

Lower prices of 60 products selected will be effective from March 12 in supermarkets of the island''. These are 48 food and 12 non-food products.

Cuts will range from 7% for the baguette to 40% for chicken and cut these prices will be valid until the end of 2012.

Suppliers, distributors and the general council will support financially these discounts in varying proportions. 

The General Council will reserve its effort to local production, partly offsetting the shortfall of farmers and food industries, for a total estimated 5 million euros. A representative of the supermarket said Tuesday evening at an equivalent amount of effort by retailers.

Lower fuel prices and will take place on Thursday from 8 cents for a liter, giving a pump price of 1.58 euro for petrol and € 1.21 for diesel. This decrease will be passed until the end of the monthly adjustments that govern oil and gas prices in Reunion.

30% unemployment

The effort will be supported financially by the regional council and the municipalities, at 6 cents per liter, the Chamber of Commerce and the oil companies involved to the tune of a penny each. In total there is expected to cost € 29.2 million to communities in the form of renunciation of the perception of the dock dues, a tax-specific DOM.

Bisse a cost of electricity for the poorest families is also being prepared. 

The General Council will provide assistance of 90 to 120 euros per year for adults with disabilities, beneficiaries of the minimum pension and workers earning less than 1, 4 minimum wage. With the help of the State and the General Council, EDF will aim for his part in extending its tariff 'social' to 10000 beneficiaries of the Universal Health Coverage (48,000 of them already pay this discounted rate already on the island) .

These decisions intervene after several nights of violence in a dozen cities Reunion, "clear signs of social unrest" according to Didier Robert, the President (UMP) of the Regional Council.

Unemployment on the island is 30%.

First dissenting voice, the Communist Party Reunion deplored the intervention of public money to lower local prices and request the State "to assume its responsibilities in relation to the retail, petroleum or EDF".