Nestle says it will keep its prices steady

VEVEY, Switzerland Due to a price ceiling hit by rising costs of commodities, Swiss food maker Nestle will most likely not raise prices of its products any higher in the near term, the company’s chairman said Sunday.

“You are now seeing the impact of price increases which were done some months ago,” Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Nestle S.A. chairman, said to Dow Jones Newswires. “I would expect [the rising costs of foods] to flatten out over the next several months and not increase anymore as our costs have come down.”

Brabeck-Letmathe was in Malaysia attending the World Economic Forum on East Asia. He said “the worst is probably past” for surges in the costs of raw ingredients such as milk, coffee, salt and cocoa.

Brabeck-Letmathe also said that his company will probably not make any acquisitions any time soon because there aren’t many attractive deals in the horizon. He also reported that Nestle doesn’t have a firm decision to sell its 29 percent hold in L’Oreal, however, it may review the idea some time next year.