Prices of medicines and medical services go up

The prices of medicines and medical services went up in October as compared with the previous month. Disprin (10-tablets), Panadol (10-tablets), urine test (routine examination) and blood sugar test each recording one percent increase, a Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) report says.
FAFEN monitors who collected data from 193 retail outlets in 111 districts reported increase in prices of 22 commodities with those of 15 going down and 13 remaining unchanged. Statistics showed a decline in fruit and vegetable prices with bananas registering the biggest drop followed by dark red apples and golden apples.
Except for onions that saw a 12 percent price hike, all other vegetables including tomatoes and potatoes registered decrease for the first time in three months. However, prices of several poultry and meat products shot up – farm eggs by 14 percent, beef by two percent and mutton by one percent. Chicken meat and chicken live saw a drop in prices.
Pulses had a similar trend. Washed mash and chickpeas went up 1 percent and washed masoor and red beans down by two percent each and washed moong pulse down by one percent.

The price of rice basmati-386 increased by one percent.
Among spices and condiments, ginger recorded a sharp increase, by 38 percent, followed by garlic that went down by 12 percent and loose salt powder which went down by five percent.
There was increase in prices of cooked items – a plate of beef went up by five percent and a cup of hot tea went up by two percent. Other items in this category remained unchanged.
In the kitchen fuels category, kerosene oil’s price rose by two percent and that of firewood by one percent.