Essential kitchen items: Officials asked to keep an eye on prices

ISLAMABAD: The meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) has been informed that there was a healthy decline in the prices of daily commodities during last week.

The meeting presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin Monday was informed that prices of pulses, tomatoes, chillies powder, potatoes, onions, eggs, sugar, gur, wheat flour bag have witnessed a decline during the last week.

The meeting was apprised that prices of eggs have witnessed decline for the last five weeks consecutively.

Economic Adviser Finance Division briefed the NPMC about weekly SPI, which witnessed decrease by 0.08 percent as compared to increase of 1.35 percent in the previous week, 33 food items contributed decrease of 0.07 percent, whereas, 18 non-food items contributed decrease of 0.01 percent to the SPI.

The chair also observed hike in the price of milk in Sindh province and directed the provincial authorities to take appropriate measures to ensure stability in the price of milk.

The NPMC was updated on the prices of wheat flour and was informed that there is a decline in the wheat flour prices in the country and sufficient stocks are available.

The secretary National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) gave a presentation on the existing available stocks and eventual demand of wheat.

The finance minister directed the Ministry of NFS&R to work out a plan for future requirement of wheat considering actual data on production and consumption of wheat in the country.

The NPMC also discussed sugar prices in the country and was apprised that a slight decrease in the sugar prices have been witnessed in the last week. Further, the chair directed the Ministry of Industries and Production to expedite the process for building strategic reserves of sugar in the country to maintain stability in prices in future.

The NPMC was briefed on the availability of essential goods at subsidised rates at the Sastaa and Sahulat Bazaars across the country and the meeting expressed satisfaction on providing essential items at discounted rates at the Sastaa Bazaars.

The NPMC was also briefed on the comparison of daily commodities’ prices in Pakistan with regional countries India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The meeting was informed that prices of daily commodities in Pakistan are the lowest in the region.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022