Food prices: Fuel prices cut benefit yet to reach public

“The cargo movers, especially intra-city goods transporters are still charging the same fare," a local wholesaler...

ISLAMABAD:

Except for tomato and rice, prices of most commodities remained unchanged during the last week despite a substantial slash in fuel prices.

“The cargo movers, especially intra-city goods transporters are still charging the same fare which they used to charge before the oil prices were slashed,” Laeeq Ahmed, a local wholesaler told The Express Tribune.

He said that the short supply of commodities particularly tomato led to an increase of Rs12 per kg this week. Tomato is now being sold at Rs56 per kg.



Meanwhile, prices of all varieties of rice witnessed a decline of Rs10 to Rs15 per kg during the last week. On the other hand, prices of pulses, sugar and flour remained unchanged.

Similarly, prices of various vegetables including potato, onion, garlic, ginger, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, turnip, reddish, carrot, fenugreek (methi), chick pea, and capsicum (shimla) remained unchanged. Moreover, spice rates too have not changed except for red chili which increased by Rs10 per kg.

Among fruits, price of pomegranate (Qandhari) jumped to Rs180 from Rs160 per kg, while that of apple, banana and guava remained stable.

Former finance minister Dr Hafeez Pasha, at a conference last week, said that economic growth had plummeted below three per cent with unemployment reaching almost 12 per cent.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2014.