ISLAMABAD: Prices of 23 out of 52 commodities witnessed increase, 18 registered drop and 11 remained unchanged in March as compared to the preceding month.
In April, however, 22 commodities registered price increase, another 22 went down and seven did not report any change said a Free and Fair Election (FAFEN) report released here Tuesday.
FAFEN governance monitors visited retail outlets in March (193 retail outlets in 113 districts) and April (179 retail outlets in 103 districts) and reported 86 pc increase in the price of onions from February to April.
Its price increased 29 percent in March and further went up 44 percent in April. However other vegetables including potatoes and tomatoes registered 6 percent and 3 percent price decrease.
Conversely, increase was registered in prices of all the monitored fruits in April as compared to February; bananas (12 percent), dark red apples (9 percent) and golden apples (7 percent).
Prices of sweeteners including sugar (2 percent), Gur (2 percent) and Desi Shaker (3 percent) also went up. All the monitored rice varieties registered price increase; Basmati-386, Basmati broken (2 percent each) and Irri-6 (1 percent).
Poultry products experienced a drop in prices with eggs going down 10 percent, broiler chicken meat (8 percent) and broiler chicken live (7 percent).However, among other meat items, no change was registered in the price of mutton while 1 percent increase was observed for beef.
Prices of spices and condiments either increased or remained unchanged. The price of garlic went up 6 percent followed by salt powder (3 percent) and turmeric (1 percent) while those of ginger and red chilies powder remained the same.
On the other hand, prices of most pulses went down. The highest decrease was registered in the price of gram pulse (7 percent), black gram (5 percent), washed Moong pulse, washed mash pulse and red beans (1 percent each). The price of white beans remained the same while that of chickpeas (2 percent) and washed Masoor pulse (1 percent) increased.
Similarly, price of a cup of hot tea and a plate of beef increased (3 percent each) while of a plate of beef and dal went down (2 percent each). No change was observed in the price of plain Chapatti despite a decrease in the price of wheat grain (5 percent) and wheat flour (3 percent).
Of the observed kitchen fuels, firewood prices went up 1 percent while LPG and kerosene oil decreased 20 percent and 1 percent. The price of LPG went down 14 percent in March as compared to the preceding month and further decreased 7 percent in April.
An increase was registered in prices of all the medical tests; blood test complete picture (2 percent), blood sugar test (2 percent) and urine test (2 percent). However, prices of Disprin and Panadol went down 3 percent and 1 percent.
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