Commodities' prices depict mixed trend in May

The prices of essential commodities registered mixed trend during May as 25 commodities' prices showed downward trend while 23 commodities showed upward trend. Price of seven items remained unchanged during the month.
According to Fafen's Retail Price Monitor for the month of May 2011, the commodities, which showed a downward trend, include vegetables, pulses, poultry and cooked items that registered an average decrease of 7 percent in their prices. Whereas, prices of 23 commodities on the other hand registered an increase of 5 percent in May as compared to April 2011. Of the 52 commodities, the prices of four commodities, however, stayed put, it added.
The data was collected from 100 towns of 79 districts across the country, of the commodities that registered a decrease, the highest decline was observed in the price of tomato that is 39 percent. The decrease is attributable to the start of its harvest in Punjab and other parts of the country.
Similarly, food items such as onion and garlic, each registered a price decrease of 19 percent. The price of poultry items such as chicken broiler (live), chicken broiler (meat) dropped by 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Seasonal affect was observed in the price of eggs that registered a decrease of 11 percent.
Given the harvest season of wheat, which is ending, the prices of wheat grain, wheat flour and chapati (tanoor) registered a decrease of 7 percent, 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
Prices of pulses such as masoor (5%), mash (4%), gram (3%), gram black (2%), chickpeas (2%) and mung pulse (1%), all registered a decrease in their respective prices. The price of cooked dal and vegetable plate decreased by 4% and 3% respectively while peanuts (3%), disprin (3%), sugar (2%), rice basmati 386 (2%) and beef (1%) also registered a decrease in their prices in May as compared to April 2011.
As far as commodities registering a price increase are concerned, apple (dark) registered the highest increase of 16% followed by potato (13%), apple golden (12%) and banana (11%). Fruits occupied three out of the top five positions among the commodities that registered the highest price increase in the month under observation.
Prices of commodities like firewood (6%), desi shakar (4%), red beans (4%), yogurt (4%), kerosene oil (3%), LPG (2%), gur (2%), white beans (2%) and mutton (2%) also experienced an increase in their respective prices. The price of cup of tea and mustard oil each registered a 2% increase while each of the commodities like rice basmati broken, milk fresh, Kinnow and red chili powder experienced a 1% price increase, respectively.
Fafen compared the data collected by its Governance Monitors with the Sensitive Price Index of the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), which revealed differences in the prices of many items collected from the same cities. In case of some items, the prices listed by the FBS were higher than those collected by Fafen, and in some instances they were on the lower side.