There has been an unusually high level of reporting in the official Uzbek media on the cheapness of bread and on government efforts to keep its price down. This follows a rise in fuel prices in the country which has triggered price increases for other consumer products.

A report published by the Pravda Vostoka newspaper on 9 October said the flour price in Uzbekistan is cheaper than in some other Central Asian countries.

The report headlined as "Grain is the symbol of well-being", published analysis on worldwide price hikes for grain and flour conducted by the Uzbek State Committee for Demonopolization and Development of Competition.

The report carried several bar charts on an increase in flour prices in the world, where Uzbekistan came last after Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Germany, the EU, the USA and Australia.

A separate bar chart compared retail prices for first-grade flour in the Central Asian region. The Uzbek prices are the lowest in the list.

"According to data received as a result of monitoring conducted by the State Committee for Demonopolization [and Development of Competition] together with the Uzbek federation of societies for protecting consumers’ rights in border areas of the neighbouring Central Asian states, today a kilo of the supreme-grade flour in Kazakhstan is 900-1,000 soums, and first grade flour is 750 soums, in Kyrgyzstan - 770 and 700 soums, in Tajikistan - 470 and 420 soums respectively. In Uzbekistan these figures stood at 445 and 315 soms," it said.

The country’s own reserves and the government efforts will make it possible to keep food prices down, the report added.

"According to data by the State Statistics Committee and the Ministry of Economy, wheat harvest in 2007 was expected at the level of 6.04 million tonnes, which would be 1% more than it was in 2006. However, in fact the harvest exceeded the prognosis," the report said.

The current official exchange rate is 1,280 soums for one dollar.