- Prices of 26 commodities including meat, rice, kitchen fuel, milk go up
- 20 commodities including apple, potato, tomato, pulses register price decrease
- A Report Based on Prices Collected at designated Retail Outlets in 150 Towns of 78 districts across Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, August 17, 2011: A FAFEN report on Wednesday said prices of commodities have witnessed a mixed trend in the first half of Ramazan, with 26 items going up by 5% and 20 going down by 7% on monthly basis.
Prices of 26 commodities including meat, rice, poultry, sweeteners and some kitchen fuel items registered an average increase of 5% while 20 commodities including apple, potato, tomato, some pulses and vegetable ghee registered an average decrease of 7% in Ramazan, compared to their prices on 10th July 2011.
FAFEN usually collects the prices of the observed consumer commodities on the 10th of every month. However, this month, the prices were collected earlier — on 6th August 2011 or 4th of Ramazan from 150 localities in 78 districts across the country. The aim was to observe any fluctuation in the prices of 52 commodities during the fasting month in which consumption of some of these commodities increases sharply.
Prices of onion, banana, chicken, red beans, eggs and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) went up by 29%, 16%, 9%, 8%, 7%, and 6% respectively. However, prices of apples, tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, and vegetable ghee registered decrease by 39%, 33%, 8%, 7% and 1% respectively.
Seasonal effects were also observed as the price of tomatoes decreased by 33% in August. Harvests of the tomato crop from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa led to its increased supply in the market. Similarly, the harvest of the summer crop of potato led to a 7% price decrease. However, onion prices, which decreased remarkably during previous months, registered 29% increase in a span of 26 days.
Prices of red beans, chickpeas and black gram increased by 8%, 5% and 1% respectively, while masoor, white beans, mash and moong registered a 5%, 2%, 1% and 1% decrease in prices.
Prices of chicken meat and live chicken increased by 9%, and 7% as meat and mutton went up by 3% and 2% respectively. However, the prices of poultry products and meat items have been on the rise since May this year.
Kitchen fuels, including LPG, firewood and kerosene oil, registered an increase of 7%, 1% and 1% respectively.
In sweeteners, prices of gur, sugar, and desi shaker registered 4%, 2% and 1% increase in prices. Yogurt went up by 2% after milk price registered 1% increase. With the increase in the prices of sweeteners, cooking fuels and milk, a cup of tea was dearer by 2%.
The price of all the observed rice varieties — irri-6, basmati-386, and basmati broken – also increased by 4%, 3% and 3% respectively. Despite a decrease in the price of wheat grain by 6%, the price of wheat flour increased by 2%. However, a decrease of 5% was observed in the price of plain chapatti.
Among the cooking oils, the price of mustard oil increased by 2% while vegetable ghee registered a decrease of 1%. All the observed spices and condiments, including garlic, turmeric, red chilies, salt powder and ginger registered eight to one percent decrease in prices in August.
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