Fruits, vegetables prices increase
Staff Reporter MUSCAT: People will now have to pay more for fruits and vegetables after data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) shows latest prices for the month of June.
In the food and beverages section, prices of vegetables and fruits turned costlier by 6.90 per cent and 3.39 per cent respectively, while that of fish and seafood fell 4.12 per cent, compared with June 2016.
The prices of milk, cheese and eggs also saw a drop of 1.16 per cent, while that of bread and cereals rose by 0.20 per cent and meat by 0.65 per cent, compared with last year’s prices.
“This is a significant increase and in this time of austerity with companies not paying salaries on time, it’s just become so difficult for us to manage our various expenses, now this is an extra addition,” said one resident.
“Fruits and vegetables prices have gone higher since April due to different reasons. We have still not noticed a lot of difference in sales,” Saif Ahmed, a vegetable market dealer at Mawaleh market, said.
The Sultanate’s year-on-year consumer prices for June 2017 touched 0.87 per cent, driven by a rise in prices for furnishings, household equipment and the routine household maintenance group, education and housing, water electricity, gas and other fuels, according to the data.
“Prices of everything have gone higher. Potato this week is 350bs per kilogram, when it was 150bs last week. Even prices of bananas have gone up, prices of sweet melon and watermelons have gone up,” B. Patel, a resident said.
Prices of oils and fats rose by 0.21 per cent and that of non-alcoholic beverages by 0.09 per cent, while sugar, jam, honey and confectioneries rose 0.44 per cent.