ISLAMABAD, February 28: The prices of 19 commodities went up in February 2012 as compared with the preceding month while those of 20 others came down and 13 remained unchanged, reveals a Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) report on Tuesday.

FAFEN monitors, who track prices each month, collected prices of 52 commodities and services from 190 retail outlets in 102 districts across the country.

According to the report, on average, there was a 2% increase in prices of commodities like kitchen fuels, fruit, chicken, some condiments and pulses while the price of commodities including vegetables, meat, sweeteners, eggs and wheat grain fell by 4%.

Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) registered the highest price increase of 8% while a 1% rise was recorded in prices of firewood and kerosene oil. There was also an increase in prices of some fruits including dark red apples (7%), bananas (6%) and golden apples (3%) but kinnow was down 8%, the report said.

The prices of all the monitored vegetables also came down, tomatoes falling a massive 13% – the highest decrease, followed by onions (11%) and potatoes (5%).

All the observed sweeteners also registered a decrease in prices – gur (9%), desi shaker (6%) and sugar (3%).

The price of live chicken broiler increased 3% and that of chicken broiler meat by 1%. However, the price of eggs declined 8% while mutton and beef were down 1%.

Of the observed rice varieties, only the price of basmati 386 increased by 1% while basmati broken and irri-6 witnessed no change.

Among pulses, the prices going up were those of red beans (2%), white beans (1%) and gram pulse (1%) but moong pulse and chickpeas registered a 3% and 1% decrease.

Changes were also recorded in prices of condiments and spices – ginger up 5% and garlic 3% while turmeric fell 3% and red chili powder 4%.

With a slight decrease in price of wheat grain of 1%, the price of plain chapatti (tandoori) also decreased as much. 

About FAFEN: FAFEN is a network of 42 civil society organizations working to foster democratic accountabilities in Pakistan. It is governed by the Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability.