Beer price cuts predicted

If a top industry analyst is correct, you should be finding lower beer prices at your favorite vendor in the next few months.

Carlos Laboy of Bear Stearns predicts the two American beer giants, Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller's Miller Brewing, will go into a cost-cutting battle as a response to the latest report of lagging beer sales.

The Beer Institute's "surprisingly negative" April report showed domestic beer volumes down 2 percent.

"If industry volumes had been positive for April, the risk of A-B and Miller having to cut prices into Memorial Day would have been diminished," Laboy says. "We suspect our expectations of 'a messy summer' are increasingly relevant."

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