(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The Statistics Centre-Abu Dhabi (SCAD) revealed on Saturday that food prices in the first week of Ramadan have increased by 2.6 per cent from the previous week. Fish and seafood prices increased by 8.8 per cent, followed by vegetables (6.7 per cent), fruits (4.2 per cent) and the milk, cheese and eggs group (0.6 per cent).
This is SCAD's first weekly report on food prices in the Ramadan, and it monitored changes in food prices during the first week of Ramadan compared with price levels in the previous week and the month of June 2012.
A slight increase of 0.1 per cent was also recorded compared to June. Although this looks insignificant, the result is based on prices of some food groups that have dropped, but also on other food groups that have increased significantly. These include the prices of vegetables, which grew by 5.3 per cent, the coffee, tea and cocoa group that is up by 5.6 per cent, fish and seafood rising by 8.7 per cent and fruit by 3.8 per cent.
The key groups that showed decreases in price in the first week of Ramadan compared with June prices include meat, which dropped 6.1 per cent and the milk, cheese and eggs group, which fell by 0.6 per cent.
The SCAD sources for this report were only outlets with fixed prices. The methodology used was based on a "basket" consisting of 308 food items and non-alcoholic beverages. However, daily monitoring will cover the most important 199 commodities only.
The SCAD plans to monitor the prices of food commodities on a daily basis during the months of July and August. A daily index for the prices of food commodities has been compiled for this purpose. Weekly reports will give week-over-week as well as yearly comparisons with the corresponding week in the previous year. Weekly figures will also be compared with those of June in addition to a set of other weekly comparisons that reflect the impact of Ramadan on food prices.
Price data is collected from field visits to sources (food selling outlets) selected from a broad segment of consumers in the city of Abu Dhabi.
According to the SCAD, the food price monitoring not only reflects the movement of prices and rates of inflation, thus helping better planned spending, but it also offers a baseline for government authorities to ensure that there is sufficient supply of various goods, exercise consumer protection and learn about consumption patterns during the holy month, thereby obtaining inputs for future planning in this regard.
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