Price of basic goods went up across the board in March

Prices for food and retail prices had a marked increase in March this year, with items such as water seeing a 12 per cent hike in the span of a month, the latest consumer product price observatory revealed on Thursday.

According to the findings prepared by the consumer protection service, the increases “reflect the food inflation rates published by the statistical service amounting to nine per cent between January and March.”

By far the most significant price hike was in fresh fish which went up 33.5 per cent for sea bass. A similar decrease was observed in vegetables that went down by 33.5 per cent too.

The average price increase for deli products was 9.3 per in March, compared to February this year. Additionally, the price of yoghurt went up by 2.6 while canned tomato juice jumped to 10.4 per cent.

Cheese prices increased on average by 11.2 per cent, while cooking oil went up by 6.7 per cent, though some went up by 4.3 per cent.

Pulses saw a mixed bag of price changes, with some items seeing a 3.9 per cent price increase while others went down by 2.4 per cent.

In March, the price of frozen fish went up by 14.5 per cent compared to the previous month while cereal prices increased 6.6 per cent.

Meat, poultry and rabbit recorded an average 3.2 per cent increase in price while soft drinks went up by 4.7 per cent. Bottled water prices went up by 12.2 per cent, 11.9 per cent in condensed milk, 9.5 per cent for diapers and 4.5 per cent in baby food. The government is currently mulling reduced VAT rates for basic necessities such as baby items, bread and water.