Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has tasked the ministries of her government to work with the major players in their sectors to develop strategies to protect citizens from rising prices.

Mottley, who was speaking last Friday (May 27) at the opening ceremony of Agrofest in Barbados, said the increasing costs being faced by her people were “unsustainable and unacceptable”.

In announcing her charge to the ministries, the prime minister said: “Indeed, this is an effort that is being undertaken globally, and one only has to look at what happened in the United Kingdom with the Chancellor of the Exchequer [Rishi Sunak] to understand that this is not a problem that is unique to the Caribbean.”

Sunak on Thursday (May 26) unveiled a package of measures to try to ease a cost-of-living crisis for the British public, with government support amounting to £37 billion (US$46.61 billion).

That support to families, three quarters of which will go to vulnerable households, is equal to one and a half per cent of the United Kingdom’s GDP.

On Friday, Mottley said she believed that Barbados’ relationship with Guyana, as well as mastering production, logistics and processing, would aid significantly in reversing the statistic that almost four out of every 10 people living in the Caribbean was food insecure.

“We believe that we are standing on a strong platform and that it is time now for us to move to the next level, especially as we face these multiple challenges that have confronted us over the last two years,” she said.