The prices of 22 commodities have increased by 8 percent in November as compared to the preceding month. A report issued by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) stated that the fruits, cooked items, vegetables, milk and medical services registered an increase in prices while those of some rice varieties, sweeteners, firewood, spices and condiments went down by 4 percent, while 11 commodities remained stable. The FAFEN governance monitors collected the prices of 52 commodities from 171 retail outlets across the country, the report claimed, adding that the highest recorded increase of 56 percent was in the price of onion with 47 percent in tomatoes and 4 percent in potatoes.
On the other hand, the prices of red and golden apples, and bananas increased by 11, 10 and 7 percent respectively. Among spices and condiments, garlic and ginger registered an increase of 3 and 2 percent in prices while salt, red chilli powder and turmeric fell by 5, 4 and 3 percent respectively. Of the prices of pulses monitored, only gram recorded a 1 percent hike but those of red beans (4 percent), washed moong (3 percent), black gram (2 percent), washed mash (1 percent) and chickpeas (1 percent) came down.
The prices of all the cooked products – plates of beef, vegetable, pulses, a cup of tea and plain chapatti went up by 6, 3, 2, 2 and 1 percent respectively, possibly because of the change in prices of other inputs and fuels or an increased demand of these commodities with the change in season. Among kitchen fuels, the price of LPG increased by 1 percent while that of firewood was down 1 percent, despite its increased demand in winter. The average prices of commodities including mutton, vegetable ghee, cooking oil, wheat grain, wheat flour, mustard oil, white beans, kerosene oil, washed masoor and broiler chicken live remained unchanged between October 10 and November 10.
