Malaysia is taking steps to control rising food prices amid inflation, says minister

Malaysia is facing inflation and the government is putting in place measures to control rising food prices, the country's domestic trade and consumer affairs minister told CNBC. Given the global trend, "we are going to be affected by inflation," Alexander Nanta Linggi, told CNBC "Squawk Box Asia" on Friday. To mitigate higher prices, the government has taken steps to stabilize prices on "what we consider as crucial food items" such as rice and meat, said the minister. "By way of subsidies and by way of other assistance," the government has made sure that people "can buy food items and essentials at the prices that they can afford," he added. Linggi said the pandemic has fueled the country's inflation problems. "We had Covid the last two years, like everyone else in the world and that too has disrupted food supply chains," said the minister, adding it led to disruptions in the production processing process. As a result, the cost of production, especially on chicken farmers, "increased tremendously," he pointed out.

Taken from CNBC, 28^th January 2022

QUESTION:

1. Based on this article, state what had caused the food prices to go up. (2 M)

1. Use a diagram to show how your answer in question 1 had caused the food prices to increase. (4 M)