Coronavirus Update: Kenyans are set to start feeling the effects of coronavirus after leading retailers Tuskys and Naivas announced that they will raise commodity prices this month.
The commodities whose prices will be hiked include clothing, furniture, mobile phones, TVs and fridges. “The retailers, who had shipped in goods in bulk ahead of the Chinese New Year in January, reckon that they will start to run out of goods from China after three weeks,” said a report that appeared in the Business Daily on Tuesday.
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The report quoted Naivas chief commercial officer Willy Kimani saying: We already have concerns from suppliers, and the effects on supplies will be apparent towards the end of the month. We expect the prices of key commodities especially electronics, clothing and toys to rise because of supply hitches and the fact that we are sourcing from more expensive markets.
The report further said that Naivas has now widened its source markets for consumer goods to include European countries, Turkey and Brazil.
On the other end Tuskys said that the prices will go up as the shortage of goods from China bites. “We have been informed by many of our overseas suppliers that there will be a shortage of certain categories of goods. In fact we have also been looking for alternative suppliers. And we realize that prices will go up,” Tuskys chief executive Dan Githua.
Gloally, China reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases in more than a month on Tuesday, but the epidemic showed little signs of waning elsewhere. Three countries — South Korea, Italy and Iran — each had at least 1,000 total cases and the number of infections in the United States topped 100.
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The worldwide death toll topped 3,000, and the number of cases passed 90,000 in about 70 countries. In the markets, Asian markets followed Wall Street’s surge, though at a more modest pace, with stocks in Tokyo and Hong Kong up less than 1 percent by midday on Tuesday. Investors were betting that world leaders and central banks would unveil some sort of coordinated action to prevent the coronavirus from plunging the world into recession. Coronavirus Update.