Food prices up 2.6% in the first week of Ramadan

Statistics Centre — Abu Dhabi issued on Saturday its first weekly report on food prices in the month of Ramadan. This issue of the report monitors changes in food prices during the first week of Ramadan compared with prices levels in the previous week and the month of June 2012. SCAD’s report indicates an increase of 2.6 per cent week over week in the prices of food commodities during the first week of the month of Ramadan, reflecting rises in the prices of fish and seafood by 8.8 per cent, vegetables by 6.7 per cent and fruits by 4.2 per cent, while the price of the “milk, cheese and eggs” group retreated by 0.6 per cent. SCAD explained that the sales outlets that served as sources of price movements are closed sources adopting fixed prices. Should the open market be accounted for as well, prices would no longer be fixed price. Instead the price of the goods supplied to the latter market are in fact wholesale prices and as such do not reflect the prices collected from closed markets as the consumer price index need to be based on the retail price per Kilogram. The report also reveals a slight increase in food prices during the first week of the month of Ramadan compared to June 2012. Although the overall change is a tiny (0.1 per cent) increase, the prices of some groups declined, while those of other groups grew significantly over the same comparison period. These include the prices of vegetables, which advanced 5.3 per cent, “coffee, tea and cocoa” (up 5.6 per cent) “fish and seafood” (up 8.7 per cent) and fruits (up 3.8 per cent). The key groups that showed decreases in prices over 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 retreated 0.6 per cent.