Joint Government Measures to Monitor Markets and Stabilize Goods Prices Through Advanced Digital System

Within the framework of efforts aimed at protecting consumers and regulating local market movements, relevant government authorities continue to implement an integrated package of reform and oversight measures to control food prices in markets and confront all forms of monopoly, alongside the launch of an advanced digital system for tracking incoming goods. Ministry of Trade Advisor Mohammed Hanoun confirmed that the ministry, in coordination with relevant entities, has prepared an economic plan aimed at stabilizing food prices offered in commercial cooperatives to make them binding on all parties. He explained that supervisory teams observed a noticeable commitment to instructions on reducing the prices of food items, meat, and table eggs, with a wide turnout from citizens to purchase these necessities from cooperatives as they are offered at suitable prices and procured from reliable origins. He added that field tours in Baghdad and the provinces demonstrated a clear decline in food commodity prices as a result of their drop in the ministry's outlets. In the context of confronting manipulators, Hanoun stressed that any attempt to hoard food materials or speculate with them is considered an economic crime that subjects the perpetrator to legal accountability, pointing out that an extensive report is being prepared to be raised to the concerned authorities. On its part, the Ministry of Planning has prepared a comprehensive plan to enhance electronic tracking for more than a thousand registered commodities, alongside opening new units for inspecting gold and precious metals. The Head of the Central Organization for Standardization and Quality Control, Fayyad Al-Dulaimi, explained that the tracking plan aims to build an integrated digital system allowing the monitoring of goods from their entry into the country until they reach the consumer. He pointed out the enhancement of inspection accuracy for 1,046 commodities in cooperation with security and economic entities, in addition to adopting certificates of origin and conformity, and working to open new units for inspecting precious metals in the provinces to curb the circulation of non-compliant jewelry and activate coordination with the Ministry of Interior.